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CvjHOLJc: Church in
Chicago
16 7.^ - 1871
GILP.KRT J. GARRAGHAN, S. T.
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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
IN CHICAGO
1673 - 1871
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
Gilbert J? Garraghan, S. J.
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Chicago, Illinois
19?,1 ,
•'GtK'
fiS4'o4^
COPYRIGHT, 1921
BY
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
CHICAGO, ILL.
To
The Most Reverend Geo?-ge W. Mimdelein, D.D.
Archbishop of Chicago
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
I. Early Missionary Visitors 1
II. The Pastorate of Father St. Cyr, 1833-1834 - 45
III. Bishop Brute and the Mission or Chicago - - 71
IV. The Pastorate of Father St. Cyr, 1834-1S37 - 82
V. Bishop Quarter 108
VI. Bishop Van de Velde 137
VII. Bishop O 'Regan 167
VIII. Bishop Duggan 180
IX. Bishop Foley and the Fire of 1871 - - - 219
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
Jacques Marquette, S.J 1
Marquette at the Chicago Portage 5
Marquette 's Journal 9
Montigny 's Chicago Letter, 1699 18 and 19
Father Gabriel Richard 29
Father Stephen T. Badin 35
Jean Baptiste Beaubien 37
Father John Mary Irenaeus St. Cyr 45
Petition of the Catholics of Chicago, 1833 4(3
Et. Rev. Joseph Rosati, D. D 4S
Father St. Cyr to Bishop Rosati 51
Record of Bajitism of George Beaubien 54
Record of Baptism of Robert Jerome Beaubien 56
Mark Beaubien 58
Anson H. Taylor 60
Augustine Deodat Taylor 65
Rt. Rev. Simon William Galjriel Brute, D. D 71
The Diocese of Vincennes, 1835 73
Bishop Flaget 's Appeal for Chicago 79
The First Saint Mary 's Church 82
Et. Rev. Maurice dc St. Palais, D. D 106
Kt. K(>v. William J. Qiuutcr, D. D 108
Saint Mary's Catlu-dial 110
Bishop Quai'ter to Bishop Puieell, 1844 ll-J
Uiiivorsity of Saint Mary of tlic Lake 113
Letter of Father Stei)hen T. Badin 120
The Hosarist 's Companion 129
Rt. Rev. James Oliver Van do Velde, D. D ir.y
Rt. Rev. Anthony O 'Regan, D. D 167
Church of the Holy Family 177
Rt. Rev. James Duggan, D. D 180
Rt. Rev. Thomas Foley, D. D 219
INTRODUCTION
The present year, 1921, is the fiftieth since Chicago
was laid waste l)y a conflagration which has passed into
history as the extreme instance of public calamities of
the kind. The amazing swiftness with which the city
retrieved its losses and stood erect on its feet again has
almost made us forget what a calamity it was. And yet,
though to the Chicagoans who followed with bated
breath its remorseless trail of destruction it seemed a
catastrophe tremendous beyond words, the Fire of 1871
is now recognized, not paradoxically, to have been a
thing that accelerated, though it checked for a time,
the victorious advance of the City of the Lakes. But
calamity or blessing, the event was and always will
remain epochal in the history of the municipality. A
line of cleavage was then and there set up between the
Chicago that was and the Chicago that was to be. Pre-
Fire Chicago is an outstanding historical unit, with
color, atmosphere and individuating lines quite its own.
Even so, in the story of Catholic origins and growth in
Chicago a line of demarcation is drawn across the i-ccord
by the event of 1871. The incidents prior to it fill out
and circumscribe the pioneer period of that fascinating
story and as such may be dealt with by the historian
as a unified whole. It is this conception which has led
the author to limit his sketch by the Fire of 1871, for
he finds in that ol^vious turning-point of local history
the logical end of a narrative which purposes to re-
count the beginnings only and not the mature develop-
ment of the Catholic Church in Chicago.
IX
El. Rov. Willium J. Quurtcr, D. D 108
Saint Mary 's Cathedral 110
Bi8hop Quarter to Bishop Purcell, 1844 112
University of .Saint Mary of the Lake 113
Letter of Father Ste{)hen T. Badin 120
The Fosarist 's Companion 129
Rt. Rev. James Oliver Van de Velde, D. D l?,7
Rt. Rev. Anthony O 'Regan, D. D 167
Church of the Holy Family 177
Rt. Rev. James Duggan, D. D 180
Rt. Rev. Thomas Foley, D. D 219
INTRODUCTION
The present year, 1921, is the fiftieth since Chicago
was laid waste by a conflagration which has passed into
history as the extreme instance of public calamities of
the kind. The amazing swiftness with which the city
retrieved its losses and stood erect on its feet again has
almost made us forget what a calamity it was. And yet,
though to the Chicagoans who followed with bated
breath its remorseless trail of destruction it seemed a
catastrophe tremendous beyond words, the Fire of 1871
is now recognized, not paradoxically, to have been a
thing that accelerated, though it checked for a time,
the victorious advance of the City of the Lakes. But
calamity or blessing, the event was and always will
remain epochal in the history of the municipality. A
line of cleavage was then and there set up between the
Chicago that was and the Chicago that was to be. Pre-
Fire Chicago is an outstanding historical unit, with
color, atmosphere and individuating lines quite its own.
Even so, in the story of Catholic origins and growth in
Chicago a line of demarcation is drawn across the record
by the event of 1871. The incidents prior to it fill out
and circumscribe the pioneer period of that fascinating
story and as such may be dealt with by the historian
as a unified whole. It is this conception which has led
the author to limit his sketch by the Fire of 1871, for
he finds in that obvious turning-point of local history
the logical end of a narrative which purposes to re-
count the beginnings only and not the mature develop-
ment of the Catholic Church in Chicago.
IX
X INTRODUCTION
AVilliin the compass of tliis ])riei' sketch will be
found compressed, it is Ix'lieved, all the essential facts
of Chicago Catholic history between the limits named.
Where possible, recourse has ])cen had to primary sources
of information. In pai'ticular. the Archdiocesan Ar-
chives of Saint Louis, the Archives of Saint Louis Uni-
versity, and the Catholic Archives of America at Notre
Dame University, have been drawn upon for pertinent
material of value. AVhere the author has had to lean
largely on secondary authorities as in Chapter VIII, he
has felt less secure. The scale of treatment as regards
the various topics varies according to the shifting meas-
ure of available material. Thus, the pastorate of Father
St. Cyr. our knowledge of which has been so much en-
la i-ged through his correspondence with Bishop Rosati
but recently brought to light, is treated in detail. On
the other hand, the jneagreness of the data available in
regard to Bishop 0 'Regan's episcopate has led the
author to eke out this section of the narrative by a
rather particularized account of the beginnings of the
Holy Family parish, concerning which much first-hand
material of interest happened to be within reach.
Chapters I, II and lY, and the greater ])art of
Chai)ter VII have ai)peared in the Illinois Catholic His-
forival Ecvicw, July, October. 1918 and April, 1919,
while Chapter III has lieen pu])lished in the Saint Louis
Catholic Historical licvicw, October, 1919. To the editors
of these maga/^incs the author makes grateful acknowl-
edgment for the privilege of reproduction.
St. Louis Z'niversity,
August 14, 1921.
ASTi
on, r
James Marquottc, missionary-explorer of the Society of
Jesus. Pliotograpii from tlic iKMoie-sizod statue by the Florentine
sculptor, tSi^nor Gaetano Ticntanove, which represents Wisconsin
in Statuary Hall, the Cai)itol, Washin<;ton, being- the State's
triliuto to the man who with Louis Joliet discovered th(> Missis-
sippi at the junction of the great waterway with the Wisconsin
near Prairie du Chien, June 17, 1673.
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN
CHICAGO
CHAPTER I
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS
No other city of the Middle West traces its histor-
ical beginnings more remotely into the past than does
Chicago. Its civic organization dates indeed only from
the third decade of the nineteenth century; but long
before the close of the seventeenth century the locality
that was to see its growth had found a place in the
permanent record of the times. As early as 1688 the
name of the city had been written into the geography
of the day, Franquelin's famous map of that year
showing "Fort Chicagou" on the site of the future
metropolis ; and this, thirteen years before Cadillac
founded Detroit, seventy-six before Laclede set up his
trading-post in St. Louis and a hundred before Denham
and Patterson platted the village that was to develop
into Cincinnati. The distinction that attaches to re-
moteness of origin is not to be denied to the great
metropolis of the Middle West.
To pick up, then, the first threads in the religious
history of Chicago, one must, as when he seeks to trace
1
2. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
its secular origins, grope in a distant and shadowy past.
In particular, the story of Catholicism in the metropolis
carries us back for its opening pages to the first
emergence of the locality into the light of histoiy. As
it happened, all the early white visitors to the site of
Chicago were of the Catholic faith ; and with their com-
ing were forged, it may be said, the first links of associa-
tion between the Catholic church and the future city.
One may not determine at this late date who of white
men were the first to arrive at the mouth of the Chicago
River. True, the distinction has been claimed for that
picturesque figure on the stage of early Western history,
Eobert Cavelier Sicur de La Salle; but no evidence
sufficient to establish his supposed visit of 1671 on
anything even like an historical basis has ever Ijccn
advanced. Not the empire-builder, but an humble
soldier of the cross is the first figure that we are able
to recognize with anything like certainty througli the
mists that hang over the day-break of Chicago history.^
Two years after the alleged visit of La Salle to the
marshy prairie-land that has since become Chicago, the
missionary-explorer Father James Marquette arrived
on the scene. On June 17, 1673, Marfiuctte and Joliot
discovered the Mississippi at its junction with the Wis-
consin. The two then descended the great waterway as
iar as the Arkansas, whence, after a brief stay, they
'"It is c'hiimcd that he [La Salle] discovered the Illinois
River also and was the first of white men to visit the place where
Chicago now stands — but the evidence does not warrant the as-
sumption." E. G. Mason, Chapters from Illinois Ilistory, Chi-
cago, 1901, p. 46. La Salle's alleged visit of 1671 to Illinois
appears to have been a fiction invented by his friends. See
Alvokd, The Illinois Country, 1920, p. 78.
EARLY MISSIONARY YISITORS o
started on their hoineward journey. With their canoes
directed up the Mississippi they proceeded as far as
the Illinois, into which they turned. At the village of
the Kaskaskia Indians situated on the Illinois at a place
not yet definitively identified, Marquette set foot for
the first time, as far as we have record, on the soil of
the future commonwealth of Illinois. Finding the
Indians in a receptive mood, he promised to return at
the first opportunity and plant a mission in their midst.
Then, resuming their journey, Marquette and Joliet
continued to ascend the Illinois until they reached the
Desplaines, which they entered, portaging thence to the
Chicago River and so reaching Lake Michigan over the
blue waters of which they voyaged to Green Bay.
Marquette redeemed his pledge to evangelize the Marquette
Kaskaskia. Leaving the ^Mission of St. Francis Xavier "' Chicago,
on October 25, 1674, with the village of the Kaskaskia ^^'^^■^<^^^
for his objective, he journeyed partly by land, partly
by water, along the Avcst shore of Lake Michigan, in
company with two French voyageurs, Pierre Porteret
and Jacques Le Castor. He arrived December 4 at
the mouth of the Chicago River, broken in health and
unable to proceed to his journey's end. After a stay
here of some days, his companions built for him a rude
shelter on the west fork of the south branch of the
Chicago River, at a distance of about five miles (two
leagues) from its outlet into Lake Michigan. Here
IMarquette lived from December 14, 1674 to March 30,
1675, busying himself with his devotions and with the
composition of memoirs of his journeys, while his com-
panions hunted turkey, deer and buffalo on ground now
covered by the world's fourth largest center of popula-
4 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
tion.- In tlio Joui'iial wliich the imssionary composed in
part while he was thus confined during the long winter
-"Thus began in Deccnilior, 1674, the first extended sojourn,
as far as we have record, of white men on the site of the future
Chicago." QUAIFE, Chicago and the Old Northiccst, 1673-1835,
University of Chicago Press, 1913, p. 24. ' ' Thus it came about
that our first account of life at Chicago pictures the doings of a
lonely priest passing the dreary winter in a rude hut, animated
by a fiery zeal for the salvation of the savages he was seeking,
tlio wliile his phvsii-al frame was shaken with the pangs of a
mortal disease. If plain living and high thinking be the ideal
life, no locality ever launched its recorded career more auspiciously
than did Chicago in the winter of 1674-1675." Quaife, The De-
velopment of Chicago, 1674-1914, (The Caxton Club, Chicago,
1916).
A'arious sites have been suggested for Marquette 's winter-
quarters at Chicago. According to Carl Ilg (Atkinson, The Story
of Chicago and National Development, pp. 8-11), he wintered on a
hillock on the right bank of the south fork of the south branch
of the Chicago River, at what is now the east end of the Thirty-
fifth Street Bridge. Another location, at the foot of Robey Street,
on the left bank of the west fork of the south branch of the
Chicago River, was marked in 1907 by a cross of mahogany
bearing the following inscription :
IN MEMORY OF FATHER MARQUETTE, S. J., AND
LOUIS JOLIET OF NEW FRANCE (CANADA) FIRST
WHITE EXPLORERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI AND ILLINOIS
RIVERS AND LAKE MICHIGAN, 1673, NAVIGATING 2,500
INIILES IN CANOES IN 120 DAYS. IN CROSSING THE
SITE OF CHICAGO, JOLIET RECOMMENDED IT FOR ITS
NATURAL ADVANTAGES AS A PLACE OF FIRST SET-
TLEMENT AND SUGGESTED A LAKE-TO-THE-GULF
WATERWAY, (See "Jesuit Relations," Vol. 58, p. 105) BY
CUTTING A CANAL THROUGH THE "PORTAGE" WEST
OF HERE WHERE BEGINS THE CHICAGO DRAINAGE-
SHIP CANAL. WORK ON THIS CANAL WAS BEGUN
SEPT. 3, 1892, AND IT RECEIVED THE FIRST WATERS
Urr.
5 o
^ -^
O
a> i< 0)
"i^ '^ +^
<^ i-H 'P
^■p
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS
days in his cabin on the lileak prairie, oecnr the follow-
ing paragraphs, memorable as the record, in his own
OF LAKE MICHIGAN, JAN. 2, 1902. THIS EEMARKABLE
PROPHECY MADE 2.34 Y^EARS AGO IS NOW BEING FUL-
FILLED. THE END OF ROBEY^ STREET IS THE HIS-
TORIC "HIGH GROUND" WHERE MARQUETTE SPENT
THE WINTER 1674-1675. "TO DO AND SUFFER
EVERYTHING FOR SO GLORIOUS AN UNDERTAKING."
Marquette's Journal. ERECTED SATURDAY", SEPT. 28, 1907,
BY THE CITY OF CHICAGO AND CHICAGO ASSOCIATION
OF COMMERCE.
This Marquette memorial cross was maliciously destroyed a
few yeai's ago, but has since been replaced by a new one, erected
by the Willey Lumber Company.
John Huston Finlay, the educator, pictures thus a visit wliidi
he ])aid to this Marquette cross.
"In the dusk of an autumn day, I went out to find the
place where the novena liad worked the miracle of his healing.
As I have already intimated, few of all the hundred thousands
there in that great city have had any consciousness of the back-
ground of French heroism and suffering and prevision in front
of which they were passing daily, but I found that the policeman
and watchman on the railroad near the ruins knew at least of
the great black cross which stands by that drab and sluggish
water, placed there in memory of Marquette and Joliet.
' ' The bit of high ground where the hut stood is now sur-
rounded by great looming sheds and factories which were entirely
tenantless when I found my way through a long unlighted and
unpaved street in the direction of the river. The cross stood,
in a little patch of white, lilack as the father's cowl [sic] against
the night with its crescent moon. I could not make out the
inscription on the river-side of the monument, and, seeing a
signal lantern tied to a scow moored to the bank near by, I
untied it and by its light was able to read the tribute of the
city to the memory of the priest and explorer who first of white
men had passed tliat way having travelled, as it recites, ' two
thousand, five hundred miles in canoes in one hundred and twenty
days.' The bronze plate bears a special tribute to the foresight
6 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
words, of the first extended sojourn of a Catholie priest
on the site of Chicago.
"Having camped near the portage, two leagues up the
river, Ave resolved to winter there, as it was impossible to
go further, since we were too mucli hindered and my ailment
did not permit me to give myself much fatigue. Several
llinois passed yesterday on their way to carry their furs to
nawaskingwe. We gave them one of the cattle and one of
the deer that Jacque had killed on the previous day. I do not
think that I Imxe ever seen any savages more eager for
French tobacco than they . They came and threw beaver skins
at our feet, to get some pieces of it; but we returned them,
giving them some pipefuls of the tobacco, because w^e had not
yet decided whether we w^ould go farther.
Chachagwessiou and the other llinois left us, to go and
join their people and give them the goods that they had
bought, in order to obtain their robes. In this they act like
the traders, and give hardly any more than do the French.
I instructed them before their departure, deferring the holding
of a council until this spring, when I should be in their
village. They traded us three fine robes of ox-skins for a
cubit of tobacco; these were very useful to us during tlie
of Joliet, Imt it eommcmorates first of all the fniil lunly and
valorous soul of Father Marquette, the first European within
the bounds of the c-ity of Chicago. I wish there might l)e
written on maps, in that spa^o tliat is shown between the
Chicago and the Dcsphiincs, or the 'Divine River' as it was
sometimes calh^l, the words 'Portage St. Jacques.' Tliat were
a fitter canonization than to put his name among the names of
cities, steamboats on the hdve or t()l)accos, as is our custom in
America.
"The crescent moon dropped l)eliind tlie sli:uh)ws llial now
line the portag(> 'like ;i somlier forest,' but it is only a few steps
through tlie darkness back into the light and noise of tlie city
of more than two million people." Finlay, The French in the
Hi art of .luurica, p. 2oS.
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS /
winter. Being: tluis rid of them we said the Mass of the
Conception. After the 14th my disease turned into a bhiody
flux.
Since we addressed ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Im-
maculate and commenced a novena with a Mass — at which
Pierre and Jacque, who do everything they can to relieve me,
received Communion, — to ask God to restore my health — my
bloody flux has left me, and all that remains is a weakness
of the stomach. I am beiiinning to feel much better and to
regain my health.
The North wind delayed the thaw until the 25th of March,
when it set in with a South wind. On the very next day,
game began to make its appearance. We killed 30 pigeons,
which I found better than those down the great river; but
they are smaller, both old and young. On the 28th, the ice
broke up, and stopped above us. ' On the 29th, the waters
rose so high that we had barely time to decamp as fast as
possible, putting our goods in the trees, and trying to sleep
in a hillock. The water gained on us nearly all night, but
there was a slight freeze and the water fell a little, while
we were near our packages. The barrier has just broken, the
ice has drifted away: and, because the water is already rising,
Ave are about to embark to continue our journey.
The Blessed Virgin Immaculate has taken such care of
us during our wintering that we have not lacked provisions
and have still remaining a large sack of corn with some meat
and fat. We also lived very pleasantly, for my illness did not
prevent me from saying holy Mass every day. We were un-
able to keep Lent, except Fridays and Saturdays.
We started yesterday and traveled three leagues up the
river without finding any portage.'"
^Jesuit Belations, (Thwaites ed. 59: 173-181). "There is no
monument of him [Marquette] so interesting and pathetic as
his unfinished letter during his last visit to the land of Illinois. . . .
8 TIIK CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICACO
Another account of Father Marquette's residence on
the banks of the Chicago River in the winter of 1674-75
is to be found in a contemporary narrative by the mis-
sionary's Superior, Father Claude Dal)lon.
''He .set out for this iMiri)ose in the niontli of Xt)vember,
1674, from the Bay of the Fetid [Green Bay] with two men,
one of whom had already made that voyage with him. During
a month's navigation on the Ilinois lake [Lake Michigan],
he was pretty well: but as soon as the snow began to fall,
he was again seized with the dysentery, which forced him to
stop in the river which leads to the Ilinois. Then they raised
a cabin and spent the winter, in such want of every comfort
that his illness constantly increased; he felt that God had
granted him the grace tliat he had so often asked, and he even
plainly told his companions so, assuring them that he would
die of that illness, and on that voyage. To prepare his soul
for its departure, he began that rude wintering by the exercises
of St. Ignatius, which, in spite of his great bodily weakness,
he performed with deep sentiments of devotion and great
heavenly consolation ; and then spent the rest of his time in
eollociuies with all heaven, having no more intercourse Avith
The larger portion of it was written in Marquette's winter camp
at the bleak portage within the limits of Chicago. It would be
wry fitting should it find its final abiding place in the city of
whose early liistory it is a priceless and unique memorial."
Mason, op. cit., p. 35. That Marquette while wintering on the
Chicago River occupied himself in writing memoirs of his voyages
is stated in a contemporary letter (dated Oct. 10, 1G75) from the
Jesuit Cholenec published in Rochemonteix, Jy( s J< suites de la
Nouvelle France Au XVII Sieclc, 3: 00(3. For the argument
that Marquette wintered on the Calumet and not on the Cliicago
River, see William Henry Lee, The Calumet Portage, in Transac-
tions of the Illinois Historical Society, 1912; also Andreas, His-
torij of Chicago, 1:46. That Marquette used the Chicago River
portage on his returi) jouiiicy with .Joliet from the Mississippi is
indicated in liis Journal, J (suit lldations, 59: 181.
.i.,^!:?::?.
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The third pas'C of Marquette's auto<;raph Journal now resting
in tlie Archives of Saint Mary's College, Montreal. The mission-
ary's own account of his historic wintering of 1674-1675 on the
site of Chicago, the inaugural episode in the life-story of the
metropolis. It appears to be all but certain that the portion of
the Journal reproduced above was composed amid the incidents it
rocoids, and may thus lay claim to the distinction of being the
earliest written docunu>nt ever put togetlier witlnn tiic limits of
Chicago. (Roch(>nu)nteix. S. J., Lrs Jesuites dc la Nourellr France
Au XVII Sifclr, r!:6()()). Courtesv of Burrows Brothers, Cleve-
land.
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 9
earth, amid these deserts, except with his two companions
whom he confessed and communicated twice a week, and
exhorted as much as his strength allowed. Some time after
Christmas, in order to obtain the grace not to die without
having taken possession of his beloved mission, he invited
his companions to make a novena in honor of the Immaculate
Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Contrary to all human
expectations he was heard, and recovering, found himself able
to proceed to the Illinois town as soon as navigation was free;
this he accomplished in great joy, setting out on the 29th
of March.* "
The accounts just cited, virtually contemporaneous
with the incidents recorded, are documents of priceless
value to the historian, supplying as they do tlie very
first pages in the religious history of Chicago. The
spiritual functions discharged by Father Marquette
during tlie winter of 1674-1675 are the earliest recorded
ministrations of a clergyman within the limits of the
future metropolis. Thus, he said the first Mass on the
site of Chicago, that of the Immaculate Conception, on
or within a day or two of the octave of the feast, De-
cember 15, 1674. Moreover, he was the first priest
known to have heard confessions, administered the
Eucliarist and imparted religious instruction in that
locality. We arc within the limits of sober fact when
Ave affirm that in the little calnn by the river-bank in
which he discharged these acts of the ministry on behalf
of his faithful attendants, Pierre Porteret and Jacques
Le Castor, the Catholic Church in Chicago first saw
the light of day.
■* Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley,
p. 54. The text of Marquette's Journal seems to make it clear
l^Jiat he resumed his journey towards the Kaskaskia on March 30.
10 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
On March 30, 1675, Marciiutte bade good-bye to his
winter-quarters on the Chicago River and resumed his
journey to the Kaskaskia village. Here, despite his
failing strength, he laid the foundation of the Mission
of the Immaculate Conception, destined to stand out
in history as the spot where civilization and Christianity
made their first rude beginnings in the ^Mississippi
Valley. Then, his life-work accomplished, he set his face
once more towards the region of the Upper Lakes. With
his life fast ebbing away, he toiled along the familiar
route by the Illinois, Desplaines and Chicago rivers to
Lake Michigan. Then, skirting the foot of the Lake, he
made his Avay painfully up its east shore to a point near
the present Ludington, ^liehigan, where on J\Iay 18,
1675, he died among his faithful Indian attendants,
leaving behind him the aroma of a singularly blameless
life and a record of achievement that will ever loom
large in the history of the discovery and exploration
of the New World.
Claude Two years after Marquette's wintering on the banks
Aiiouez, 1677 Qf i\^Q Chicago River, another Jesuit, in the person of
Claude Alloucz;, entered the same river from Lake ]Mieh-
igan. Towards the end of October, 1G76, that veteran
missionary, the apostle of Wisconsin and founder of
all the principal mission-posts wdthin its borders, started
from wliat is now Do Pere with two men to visit the
Kaskaskia ^Mission, which Father ^Marquette had set up
on the Illinois River as the final achievement of his
all too l)ricf career. Detained by intensely cold weal her
among the Potawatomi of Green Bay until Febriuuy,
1677, Father Allouez then resumed his journey and
about the middle of April reached the nioulh of the
Chicago River. Here, or some distance up the stream.
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 11
he met a band of eighty Indians by whom he was wel-
comed with great display of cordiality.
"Tlie Captain came about 30 steps to meet me, carrying
in one hand a fire-brand and in the other a cahimet adorned
with featliers. Aj^proaching me, he placed it in my mouth and
lighted the tobacco, which obliged me to make pretense of
smoking it. Then he made me come into his cabin, and having
given me the place of honor, he spoke as follows:
'My Father, have pity on me; suffer me to return with
thee, to bear thee company and take thee into my village.
The meeting that I have had with thee to-day will i^rove fatal
to me if T do not use it to my advantage. Thou bearest to us
the gosjDel and the prayer. If I lose the opportunity of
listening to thee, I shall be punished by the loss of my
nejihews whom thou seest in so great numbers: without doubt
they will be defeated by our enemies. Let us embark then,
in company, that I may profit by thy coming into my land.'
That said, he set out at the same time as ourselves and shortly
after, we arrived at his abode.^ "
No further details of Father Alloiiez's visit in 1677
to the site of Chicago are known outside of the few just
cited, which he himself put on record. After him, other
members of his Order, including Sebastian Rasles,
James Gravier, Julian Binneteau and Gabriel ]\Iarest
gave their services to the maintenance of the Kaskaskia
i\Iission. The}' most probably made use of the Chicago
portage on their way to the Mission from their head-
quarters in Canada. One of their number, Father
Gravier, set out from Chicago in 1700 on a journey
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. ' ' I received
on my return from Michilimackinak, " he wrote to a
^Jesuit Belations, 60: 158. "In April, 1677, the party en-
tered at last the river which leads to the Illinois, undoubtedly
the stream now flowing- through Chicago." Mason, op. cit., p. 44.
12
Till': (wiiioLic ciinu'ii in Chicago
Zenohe
Mcmbrc,
1681;
Ca velicr
de la Salle,
A7}aslasius
Douay,
16SS
fi-iend. "the lett(M' lliat you diil me the lioiioi" of \vri1in<^
to mc l)y way of the Mississipy, addressed to Father
Avcncau, who sent it to me at Chica^oiia — whence I
started in 1700, on the 8th of September, to come here. "^
In December, IGSl, four years and more latei" 1hau
liis arrival at the ("hica^o River, Allouez was foHowed
there by the exploring pai'ty of La Salle and Tonty.
In the ])arty was the Recollect Zenol)e ]\Ieml)re. who
was later to lose his life at the hands of hostile Indians
in the wilds of Texiis. Seven years more were to i)ass
when in 1G88 the sad survivors of La Salle's last ex-
ploring party passed through Chicago on their way to
Canada. Joutel, whose Journal is a classic in the liter-
ature of American exploration, led the group. Avliich
included two priests, j\I. Cavelier de La Salle, a brother
of the explorer, and the Recollect, Father Anastasius
Douay. Bad weather kept the travellers at tlie Chicago
River from ]\Iarch 29 to April 5, when they ])egan to
paddle their canoes over the w^aters of Lake ^Micliigan.
They had found Init little game at their stopping-place,
but the maple trees furnished an abundance of syrup
in which they boiled their Indian corn, "which made it
delicious, sweet and of a very agreea])le relish.""
^Jesuit liclations, (iO: 100.
''Memoir of the Sicur De Tonty in French's Ilistorical Col-
lections of Louisiana, 59. Joutel's Journal in Fkexcii's Ilist.
Coll. Louisiana, 190. Joutel has this reference to Chicago : ' ' We
wont on until Thursday the 25th when we arrived at a place
called Chicagou, which, according 1o what we were told, has Ix'cmi
so called on account of the quantity of garlic growing in this
district i7i the woods. There is a small river there, formed from
the drainage from a great plain or prairie at that place which
flows straight into the lake, called, as I have said elsewhere, tlie
Lake of the Illinois of Micliigan," Journal in Qi'AIKE, The De-
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 13
Glancing back at our narrative, we see that five
Catholic priests at least, Fathers Marquette, Allouez,
Menibre, Cavelier de la Salle, and Douay, find mention
in contemporary records as having visited the site of
Chicago before the establishment there of the Jesuit „
^ _ Francois
Mission of the Guardian Angel by Father Pinet towards Pinct
the close of the seventeenth century. and the
'' Mission of the
We now come to a highly interesting episode that Guardian
stands out phantom-like through the dim twilight of fgg^^^'^^^,^,
early Chicago history. The substance of the fact is
beyond dispute, but details are tantalizingly few. It is
a truth scarcely recorded in the history books, so casual
is the mention of it surviving in documentary sources,
that on the site of Chicago or in its immediate vicinity
there existed during the closing years of the sevcnteenih
century a Catholic Mission conducted on behalf of the
Miami Indians of the neighborhood. It was established
under the name of the "Guardian Angel" in 1696 by
the Jesuit Father Frangois Pinet and maintained by
him until 1700, when it closed its doors. We get but
a faint picture of this primitive establishment from the
few meagre particulars that survive. As to its precise
velopment of Chicago, p. 22. According to Joutel (Journal,
p. 31), the Jesuits had built a fort at Chicago, a statement not
in accordance with the facts. See in the Transactions of the
Illinois Historical Society, a study by Mild Milton Quaife,
"Was there a French fort at Chicago?" whicli query he answers
in the negative. However, there is evidence, though perhaps not
altogether decisive, that in 1682 or 1683 La Salle caused to be
built at Chicago a small post or fort, which was afterwards
strengthened by Tonty and La Forest. See Alvord, The Illinois
Country, Centennial History of Illinois, 1: 89, 101. "After
Marquette 's hut this was the first building on the site of
Chicago."
14 THE CATHOLIC CIIT'KCH IX CHICAGO
location, investigators are not agreed, thoiigli all fix
it Avithin the city limits of Chieago or a few miles be-
yond. It has been plaeed on the banks of Lake Calumet^
as also on the margin of the marshy body of water
known as the "Skokie," at a distance of two miles north
of the city-limits of Evanston." A recent student of the
l)rol)]om, rejecting the locations named, reaches the con-
clusion that the Miami Mission of the Guardian Angel
stood "on the Chicago River somewhere between the
forks and the mouth," in what is now the very heart
of the metropolis.^" At all events, then, the IMission was
established either on the site of the modern Chicago or
in close proximity to it, and this circumstance, coupled
with the fact that it bore the city's name, Mission de
L'Ange Guardien de CMcagou, lends it surpassing in-
terest in the story of early Catholicism in Chicago.
MM. Situated as it Avas on the route usually taken by
Montujnv, missionaries from Canada as thev made their wav south
Davion, j. ,^ • -• i -n . '
st.cosme, ^^ ^^^ missiou-posts ou the Illinois River, the :\Iission
•''William Hexuy Lee, The Calumet Portage, in Transactions
of the IUi7iois Uistorical Society, 1912.
^Father Pierre Francois Pinet, S. J., and his Mission of the
Guardian Angel of Chicago (L'Ange Guardien) 1696-1099. A
paper read liefore a joint meeting of the Chicago Historical
Society and the Evanston Historical Society in the Chicago His-
torical Society Building, Nov. 27, 1906, by Frank R. Grover.
Quaife, characterizing Grover 's study as uncritical, declines to
accept the latter 's contention in favor of the "Skokie" or North
Shore site of Father Pinet 's Mission.
"Quaife, op. cit., p. 42. "From every point of view tiie
study of St. Cosme's letter leads to the conclusion that the Mission
of the Guardian Angel was on tlio Chicago River at some point
between the forks and the mouth." Gurdon S. Hubbard in his
Autobiography places Father Pinet 's Mission on the North branch
of the Chicago River though on what evidence does not appear.
mos
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 15
of the Guardian Angel became a favorite halting-place
for those sturdy pioneers of civilization in the IMissis-
sippi Valley. Here, in October, 1698, Fathers Montigny,
Davion and St. Cosine, of the Society of Foreign Mis-
sions, who were commissioned by Bishop St. Vallier of
Quebec to evangelize the Indians of the IMississippi
country, were hospitably received by the resident Jesuit
priests; and the incident, over two centuries removed
from the present writing, brings home to us the interest-
ing fact that even at that remote date civilization and
Christianity were not unknown on the bleak stretch of
morass and prairie that has since become Chicago. Be-
fore leaving Canada the Montigny partly had held con-
ferences lasting through seven days with the experienced
Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Gravier and Carheil, who
assured them that a cordial welcome awaited them in
Chicago. ''Father Binneteau, as well as Father Pinet
at Chicago, will find it a pleasure to render them every
sort of service."" Of the reception they met with at
Chicago Father St. Cosme wrote from the Arkansas
under date of January 2, 1699 :
"We remained five days at Kipikaoni [Racine, Wis.] St- Cosme's
leaving- on tlie 17th and after being windbound on the 18th -^«*^^'''
and 19th we camped on the 20th at a place five leagues from jjjgg
Chikagou. We should have arrived there early on the 21st,
but the wind which suddenly arose on the lake compelled us
to land half a league from Chikagou. We had considerable
difficulty in landing and in saving our canoes ; we had all to
jump into the water. One must be very careful along the
lakes, and especially Lake Michigan, whose shores are very
low, to take to the land as soon as possible when the waves
" Relation De La Mission Du Mississippi du Seminaire de
Quebec en 1700 par Mm. De Montigny, De St. Cosine et Thaumur
Du La Source, 65 (Shea, Cramoisy Press, New York, 1861).
16 THE CATHOLIC ClirKCll IX CHICAGO
rise on the lake, for the rollei-s become so liigli in so short
a time that one runs the risk of breaking his canoe and losing
all it contains. Many travellers have already been wrecked
thei-e. We, Monseigneur de Montigny, Davion and myself,
went by land to the house of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers
while our people renuiined behind. We found there Reverend
Father Binneteau, who had i-ecently arrived from the Illinois
country and was sliglitly ill.
I cannot describe to you, my lord, with what cordiality
and manifestations of friendship these Reverend Fathers re-
ceived and embraced us while we liad tiic consolation ol' re-
siding- with them. Their house is built on the bank of a small
river, with the lake on one side and a fine and vast inaiiic
on the other. The village of the savages contains over a
hundred and fifty cabins and a league up the river is still
another village almost as large. They are all Miamis. Reverend
Father Pinet usually resides there cxcej^t in winter, when
the savages are all engaged in hunting and then he goes to
the Ilinois. We saw no savages there; they had already
started for their hunt. If we may judge of the future from
the short time that Reverend Father Pinet has passed in this
mission we may believe that if God will bless the labors and
zeal of that holy missionary there wall be a great number of
good and holy Christians. It is true that but slight results
are obtained Avith reference to the older persons, who are
hardened in profligacy, but all the children are baptized,
and the jugglers even, who are the most opposed to Chris-
tianity, allow their children to be baptized. They are also
very glad to let them be instructed. Several girls of a certain
age and also many young boys have already been and are being
instructed, so that we may hope that when the old stock dies
off, they will l)e a new and entirely Christian i)c'(i|)le."
At the departure of Father ]\Iontigny aiul his fellow-
priests from the Jesuit Mission at Chicago, a young lad
of their party lent an unexpected element of excitement
to the routine of the journey by getting lost in the
prairies. Thirteen days later he reappeared at the
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 17
Mission-house utterly exhausted and out of his mind.
Chicago's first "small boy" went on record as occasion-
ing at least one spell of poignant anxiety to his elders.
The incident is told by Father St. Cosine, as he con-
tinues his letter:
*'0n the 24tli of October the wind fell and we went for
our canoes with all our effects, and finding that the water was
extraordinarily low, we made a cache in the ground with some
of them and took only what was absolutely necessary for our
journey, intending to send for the remainder in the spring.
We left Brother Alexandre in charge thereof, as he agreed to
remain there with Father Pinet's man. We started from
Chikagou on the 29th, and slept about two leagues from it
on the little river [south fork of the Chicago river] that
afterward loses itself in the prairies. On the following day
we began the portage, which is about three leagues in length
when t^he Avaters are low and is only one-fourth of a league
in the Spring, for then we can embark on a small lake [Mud
or Portage Lake] that discharges into a branch of the river
of the Illinois, and when the waters are low a portage has to
be made to that branch. On that day we got over half our
portage and would have gone still further when we perceived
that a little boy given us by Monsieur de Muis and who had
set out alone although he was told to wait, was lost. We had
not noticed it because all our people were busy. We were
obliged to stop to look for him; everybody went and several
gun-shots were fired but he could not be found. It was a
rather unfortunate accident; we were pressed for time, owing
to the lateness of the Season, and the waters being very low,
we saw quite well, that as we were obliged to carry our
luggage and our Canoe, it would take a long time to reach
the Illinois. This compelled us to separate. Messieurs de
Montigny, de Tonty and Davion continued the portage on the
following day, while I with four other men went back to
look for the little boy. While retracing my steps I met
Fathers Pinet and Binneteau, who w-ere on the way w^ith
two Frenchmen and a savage. We looked for the boy during
the whole of that day also without finding him. As it was
18 I'm: cA'i'iiohK" t'lirKcii ix Chicago
llie day belorc the i'east of All Saints, I was (•(iinpcllfd to
go to Chikayou for the night with our people. After ihcy
had lieard Mass and performed their devotions early in the
morning, they spent the whole of that day also looking for
the little boy without getting sight of him. It was very
difficult to find him in the long grass, for this country con-
sists of nothing but prairies with a few groves of trees. We
were afraid to set fire to the long grass lest we might burn
the boy. JNIonsieur de Alontigny had told me to remain only
one day, because the cold weather pressed us and this com-
pelled me to proceed, after giving orders to Brother xVlex-
andre to seek him and take some Frenchmen who Avere at
("hikagou." '-
111 April of 3699 Father ^[ontigny was again in
Chicago, "liaving returned thither fi'oni the lower Mis-
sissippi. To Father Bruyas, Jesuit Superior at Quebec,
he wrote fi'oin CJiicago on Ai)ril 2;3 of that year a
'= Kellogg, Earlii Narratives of the Northwest, p. 346. See
also QuAiFE, The Development of Chicago, 1674-1914. Father
St. Cosme and his companiou-pricsts in the course of their voyage
down the ISIississippi cololirated Mass, Deeemljcr 8, 1698, on the
ii;;ii( liaiilv of tlie river directly opposite tlie Tamaroa vilhige,
near tlio later Cahokia. This location is evidently to be identitied
with the site of St. Louis. We accordingly have here the earliest
recorded exercise of the Christian ministry within the limits of
the future metropolis. "Next day [Dec. 7 J alwut noon we
reached the Taniarois l>iit did nut go to it as we wished
to ]>repare for the f(>ast of the ('oii('e|i1 ion. Wo cabined on the
other side of the river on the right next day, feast of the
Conception, after saying our Masses, we went with M. Tonty and
seven of our men well ai'med."
Up to a period well within the nineteenth century custom
sanctioned the prefix "Father," for the names of priests belong-
ing to i-eligious orders, and the prefix ''Mr." for the names of
l>riests not belonging to such orders. Conformably to ])r( sent -day
usage, th(> writer has pr(>f'erreil to designate' all piiests unil'orndy
as " Father. ' '
15 aa*t£fd^^
/ - ^ /- . ;
The Reverend Mr. IMoiitigny, priest of the Society of Foreign Missions
writes from "Chicagou," April 2?., 1699, to the Superior of the Society
of Jesus in Quebec, advising him that the Jesuit missionary stationed in
"Chieagoa" is overtaxing himself with the labors of the ministry. Prob-
a])ly the oldest written communication dated from Chicago. Photostat copy
from the hitherto unpublished original in the Congressional Library, Wash-
ington.
^*^
,fir fut
yt'tca^rtrtu^
/\ .—J
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS
19
letter which is still preserved, being very prol)ably the
oldest written communication from that locality known
to exist.^^
"We are under too many obligations to your Fathers for
the kind reception they have been ])leased to tender us not to
give some exjjression of my gratitude. For your Fathers
of Miehibmakinac, of Pimiteoui [Peoria] and of Chieagou
have spared no pains to make us welcome. I declare to you
I have been highly edified by their zeal, though of a surety
I do not believe that they can bear up much longer under the
severe hardships which they endure; I believe that you ought
either to tell them not to take so much upon themselves or
at least to send somebody to share with them the toils of
their missions. I sjieak in particular of the one in Chicagou
and of Father Binneteau, whom vv'e found in Chicagou quite
exhausted after the rather serious illness he had passed
through. I do not doubt that the gentlemen of the Seminary
of Quebec will inform you, should you so desire, concerning
the particulars of our journey, which, thanks be to God, has
been a fairly prosperous one, the occasion which is a!)out
to slip by not permitting me to write to you about it my-
self, as I should wish to have done. I beg j'ou be persua:le;l
that I am very truly in our Lord,
My Reverend Father,
Your very humble and obedient servant,
MOXTIGXY.
From Chicagou, April 23, 1699."
Montigny'.
Letter,
Chicago,
April 23,
1699
"M. Montigny a P. Bniyas, April 23, 1699. The original,
in French, of Father Montigny 's Chicago letter of April 23,
1699, liitlierto unpublished so far as the writer is aware, is in
the Congressional Library, Washington. Shea has printed two
Chicago letters in his Eelation, etc., (cf. note 11) one hy
Thaumur la Source, April, 1699, and the other by Michael St.
Cosnie [?] "de Chicago, ce Avril, 1699." "We [Montigny and
la Source] arrived on Maunday Thursday at Chicagou, after
making thirty leagues by land We are to start from
Chicagou on Faster Monday. The finest country we have seen
20 THE CATIiOLK" ("IITRCII IX CHICAGO
Few pnrtieiilars of 1he work of the Jesuit mission-
avies at Chicago during the i)ei'iod KiOG-lTOO liave eoiiie
down to us.^* Around the ^Mission were two Indian
villages of one hundred and fifty cahins eaeli. Tlie most
interesting fact recorded is the conversion by Father
Pinet of the. Peoria chief who had previously resisted
the zealous solicitations of Father Gravier at Kaskaskia.
Yet, that the ]\Iission of the Guardian Angel at Chicago
was a post of importance in the French dominions of
the New World seems borne out by the fact tluit it clial-
lenged the attention of Frontenac, Governor of Canada,
who, in pursuance of his general jDolicy of unfriendliness
to the Jesuit establishments, closed it in 1697. A|)peal
having been made to the Bishop of Quebec, the mission-
aries were enabled through his intervention to resume
theii' ]a])ors. which, however, were not to continue long.
For reasons not ascertainable now the ^Mission was closed
permanently about the beginning of the eighteenth
century. Father Pinet, its founder, withdrawing there-
upon to the Tamaroa Indians, who were settled on the
left bank of the ^Mississippi o])posite the ])oint on the
right liank where Laclede was in later years to estal)lish
the trading post that developed into St. Louis. Among
the Tamaroa and the Cahokia he labored with exceHent
I'csults, his little missioii-chai)el of the Holy Family
being unable, on the testimony of Father Gravier. to
contain the throng of Indians that Hocked to hear him.
^Vhen the Tamai'oa with a consitlcM'able nuinbei' of the
in all i.'< from riiir;ij;()u to the Tamaroas. It is iiotliini;- but
prairip and (■luiiii>s of trees as far as you can see."
"The few references to Father IMnet '.s Mission in the J(suit
l!(hilioit.'i are gathered together in Frank R. Gover's ])a|ier cited
aliove.
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 21
French joined the Kaskaskia in their new home on the
right bank of the Mississippi two leagues below the
mission of the Holy Family, Father Pinet appears to
have accompanied them; at all events, he died in their
midst. He is the first clergyman known to have died
in the territory that has since become the state of Mis-
souri, the French-Kaskaskia-Tamaroa village which saw
his last moments, Missouri's earliest settlement, having
stood on the north bank of the Des Peres river at its
mouth, a spot within the city-limits of the St. Louis of
today. Francois Pinet, the first resident missionary-
priest of Chicago, was likewise, it would appear, one of
the first resident missionary-priests of St. Louis, thus
furnishing in his person a most interesting link of
association of over two centuries' standing between those
two great cities of the Middle West.^^
"A Ijrief sketch of Father Pinet may be read in the Jcsidt
delations, 64: 278. For an imaginative treatment of the Mission
of the Guardian Angel of Chicago, see Jennie Hall's The Story
of Chicago, 35. According to Shea, Mississipi)i Voyages, 53,
note. Father Pinet died at Caholda about 1704, while the author-
itative list of Jesuit missionaries prepared by Father Arthur
Jones, S. J., of Montreal, for the Jesuit Relations, 71: 158, gives
place and time of Father Pinet 's death as Chicago, July 16,
1704. Both of these authorities are apparently to be set aside
l)y the definitive contemporary testimony of Father Bergier ac-
cording to which Pinet died among the Kaskaskia, August 1, 1702
(Letter of Bergier, March 1, 1703, in Transactions of the Illinois
Historical Society, 1905, p. 41). At the period of Pinet 's death
at the River Des Peres, Father Bergier was living at Cahokia
on the opposite bank of the Mississippi. The tradition locating
a Jesuit mission at the mouth of the River Des Peres, Missouri,
has recently been placed on a strictly historical l^asis by Rev.
Laurence Kenny, S. J., of St. Louis University. Cf. St. Louis
Catholic Historical Eevieiv, 1 : 151-156.
22 'riii: catholic ciirRcn ix cincA(io
AVilh llie elosin<i: ;il)()iit 1700 of Father Pincfs Mis-
sion of the Guardian Angel at Chicago, a veil is thrown
over the i-eligioiis history of the loeality for more than
a cciitiu'y. Not until ITHG is the ])lace known to have
()een visited again by a Catholic priest. It is safe indeed
to assume that during this interval, one or more of the
.lesuit missionaries stationed at Cahokia and Kaskaskia
on the ^lississippi nmde use of the Chicago i)ortage on
their way to and from headquai'ters in Canada ; l)ut no
mention of any of their numhei- in such coiuieclion
occurs in the Relaiions or other sources.^" In 1721
Father Francois Charlevoix, Jesuit traveler and his-
toi'ian. tlien visiting the region of the Great Lakes and
the ]\lississippi country under a eonunission from the
French government to investigate the problem of a
trade-route to the Pacific Ocean, was at the Potawatomi-
IMiami Mission on the St. Josei)h river near Niles.
]Michigan. Thence, as his entertaining narrative informs
us, his itinerary was to bi'ing him to the Illinois hy way
Father Montigny, oiio of the party of priests of liie For-
eion Missions who passed through Chicago in th(> autunni of
1698, returned there for a visit the following spring. **I will
inform you simply of that which took place in this Mission since
our arrival from the Arkansas and since M. dc Montigny left it
to go to Chicago, March 28, of the preceding year, 1G99. He
left me here witii two men. I worked toward having my home
liuilt anil had wood gathered for my chapel. I baptized smeral
childr(>n ami upon Mr. Montigny 's return from Chicago, 1 had
baptized thirty." Extract from a letter of Father St. Cosmo
dated Tamarois, Mareli 1700, in the Transactions of the Illinois
Jlistorical Society, 190S, p. 'I'M').
" In 1728 Father Dumas, S. J., accompanied a French mili-
tary expedition to Chicago or its neighborhood where a band of
Foxes and Kickapoo were routed in l)attle, many of them being
killed. ALVOrin, The Illinois Country, 1673-1818, p. 16.''..
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 23
of ''the little river Chieagou'"; but the low stage of
water in that stream made it neeessary for him to choose
another route/"
At the end of the seventeenth century the ^Miami
Indians were settled on the site of Chicago or in its
immediate vicinity.^* Having shifted their habitat at
a later period to the southeast, to what is now northern
and central Indiana, they w^ere followed in the Chicago
region by the Potawatomi, who remained there until
the removal of the tribe to the West by the G-overnment
in 1835. At the treaty of Greenville in 1795 the Pota-
Avatomi ceded to the United States as a site for a
government fort a tract six miles square at the mouth
of the Chicago River, the innermost area of the metrop-
olis that was to be.
I pioneer
After the eclipse into whicli it passed for the first settiers,
six decades of the eighteenth centurv, that point on the ^^ Compt,
" ' . Guane,
map again comes into view as a place of human habita- rointc de
tion with the alleged arrival about 1765 of Madame '!,"'.^'''',,
^ Ouumette,
La Compt nee La Flamme, Ijorn at St. Joseph on Lake LeMai,
Pettel,
"Charlevoix, A voyage to North America, Dulilin, 1766, Kimie.
Letter XXVI, 139. "I think I informed you in my last, that I
had the Choice of Two Ways to go to Illinois: The first was,
to return to Lake Micliioan, to coast on the South Shore, and
to enter into the little River Chicagou. After going up it five
or six leagues, they pass into that of the Illinois, by the means
of two Portages, the longest of which is but a league and- a
quarter. But as this River is but a Brook in this place, I was
informed that at that time of the year I should not find water
enough for my canoe; therefoio I took the other route, which
has also its inconveniences, and is not near so pleasant, l>ut it is
the nearest." See also Quaife, op. cit., 45.
^^ Handbook of American Indians (Bureau of American Eth-
nology), I, Art. Miami.
24 THE CATIIOLK^ ("lirKCII IX CHICAGO
Michigan." Here is a curious, almost half-mythical
figure, as seen througli the ])rcvailing haze that envelops
this period of Cliicago history. Next in succession to
Madame La Compt arrives a trader by the name of
Guarie, whom tradition represents has having had a
house on the North Branch as early as 1778. Then,
al)out 1790, came the San Domingo negro or mulatto,
Jean Baptistc Pointe dc Saible.-'* lie was a trader by
occupation and according to one account had so in-
gratiated liimself with the Potawatomi that he aspired
to become their chief. By Col. De Pcyster, British Com-
mandant at Detroit, he is touched off in an official
report as a '"'well educated and handsome negro."
Pointe de Saible built his cabin close to the north bank
of the river at the foot of the former Pine Street,
where now the new massive boulevard bridge spans the
river. Here he remained until about 179G, when he
withdrew to Peoria, or, according to another account,
to the region of St. Louis. Before his departure he dis-
posed of his cabin to Francis Le Mai, a French-Canadian
trader, who in time sold it to John Kinzie when the
" By far the most critical study of the successive arrivals
of the pioneer settlers of Chicago is to be found in Mild Milton
QUATFE's Chicago and fJir Old Xnrtliwcst, 1673-1835 (University
of Cliicago Press, liH.'l), to which reference has already been
made. For notices of JVIadamo La Compt and Guarie, see Quaife,
(ip. cit., VM. Madame La Compt, later Mrs. Brady, died at
Cahokia at the age of 106 years. According to Reynolds, Pioneer
History of Illinois, Belleville, 1852, p. 136, she settled in Chicago
witli lier first luisV)and, " Sarnte Ange or Pelate, as he was some-
times called," aliout the year 1765. Reynolds, who apparently was
so informed by Madame La Cdiniil herself, is the oidy iiutliority
for the statement.
-"Quaife, op. cit.. 138-142.
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS lo
latter arrived in Chicago in 1804.^^ Enlarged and im-
proved by its third owner, this building achieved local
fame as the Kinzie ^Mansion, the first chronologically of
that vast forest of human habitations which is Chicago.
To the names of Pointe de Saible and Le Mai must be
added those of Antoine Ouilmette and Louis Pettel or
Fettle to complete the list of persons who are known
to have settled at the mouth of the Chicago River prior
to 1805. As Antoine Ouilmette took up his residence
there as early as 1790, he is perhaps entitled to the
distinction of being the first white settler of Chicago,
if WT except the claims to priority, doubtful at the
best, of ]Madame La Compt and Guarie."- Interesting
as are these remote occupations of Chicago land by
-^ Tlio identity of the Uc Sail^le and Le Mai ea1)in with the
Kinzio "mansion" in its primitive stages of construftion is as-
serted by Andreas.
-- Blanchakd, Chicago and the Northivest, 1: 574. Quaife
does not accept without reserve Ouilmette 's statement that he
settled at Chicago in 1790. All available information concerning
this interesting figure on the stage of early Chicago history has
been collected by Frank R. Grover in his brochure, Some Indian
Land Marks of the North Shore , pp. 177-290. Ouilmette 's wife,
Archange, a Potawatomi, was awarded a reservation of two
sections of land by the Treaty of Prairie du Chien, 1829. "The
reservation extends from a point a little south of Kenilworth to
Central Street in the city of Evanston, with the Lake as the
eastern boundary and extending west of the Northwestern Rail-
way. It contains two full sections of 1280 acres of land, some
300 lying in the city of Evanston and the remainder comprising
the greater part of the land in Wilmette Village." The Evanston
portion of the reservation was sold by Ouilmette 's children in
1844-45 at $1.50 an acre. Two of his daughters were still living
in 1905 in Kansas. Wilmette is of course an Americanized spell-
ing for Ouilmette.
26 THE CATHOLIC ClirKCll IX (TIICACO
adventurous ])iont'ei's. they can scarcely be said to iiave
given rise to the future city. The event that really
determined the growtli of a center of population at the
outlet of the Chicago River was the establishment there
in 1803 of Fort Dearborn by Captain John AV lustier,
V. S. A. Burnt to the ground by the Indians in the
historic massacre of 1812, the l^'ort \vas rel)uilt in 1816
and around it as a nucleus the various elements of a
new settlement gradually took shape. Ca])tain AYhistler
was born in Ireland in 1758. In the opinion of Quaife,
than whom no one has written more authoritatively of
Cliicago beginnings, if any individual may with ])ro-
priety be called the "Father" of the modern city, it is
Captain John AYhistler.
Of the earliest residents of Chicago mentioned in
the ])receding paragraph, all, ])robably without excc])-
tion, were Catholics or had Catholic connections.-"' On
October 7, 1799, a party of Chicago residents, "halntans
a Chicagou" were in St. Louis enlisting the services of
the acting pastor of the ])lace, the Recollect, Father
Lusson, for the baptism of their children. The i)arty
included Francis Le ]\Iay [Mai] and his wife, Alarie
Therese Roy and Jean Baptiste Peltier and the latter 's
Avife. Susanne Pointe de Saible, Josej)!! and ]\Iarie
-^ Rol)('i-t, son of Joliii I\iiizi(>, was liaptizrd in Cliicaj;"o,
April 2;i, ls:;7, l>y leather Timothy O'iNIoaia, ln'ino- then twenty-
eiyht vciirs of age. Gwonthloan, dauj;'lit('r of Robert Kinzie and
Gwonthh^an Harriet Whist'ler, daughter of Major William
Whistler, was baptized in Chieao-o, September 2, 1838, by Bishop
]'>rut('. Robert Kinzie was huiied from St. James's Catholic
Cluirch, the officiating priest being Father Patrick Riordan, the
future Archbishop of San Francisco. With regard to Major
William Whistler, son of Captain John Whistler, see note 42, p. 44.
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 27
Therese Le May []\Iai] and Eulalie Peltier were the
names of the children baptized. The godfather of Marie
Therese Le May [Mai] was Pierre Cadet Chouteau,
grandson of Madame Terese Chouteau, the '"mother"'
of St. Louis.-'" To these interesting entries in the bap-
tismal register of the St. Louis Cathedral may be added
an entry in a register of the church of St. Francis of
Assisi, Portage des Sioux, Missouri, which records the
marriage there on July 27, 1819, of Domitille Pettelle of
"Chicagow" and Jean Evangelist Sicard of St. Joseph,
Quebec.-* As far as can be ascertained the above take
precedence chronologically over all other recorded
baptisms and marriages of residents or former residents
of Chicago or vicinity if we except the baptism at
Mackinac in June, 1764, of Louis Amiot, who was
born "at the river Aux Plains, near to Chicago."-^
In 1S15 the French Catholics settled in Chicago ap-
pear to have been numerous enough to call for special
mention in a report on conditions in his diocese ad-
'-^^' Le meme jour et I'an [7 October 1799] Eulalie ne'e huit
October, 1796, da legitime marriage du Sr. Jean Baptiste Peltier
et du Dlle Susanne point de Saible Son epouse habits a Chicagou
le parain a etc le Sr hyacinth Saint Cyr et la marain Dlle helene
hebert son epouse — ct ce en presence of M. et Madame le May
et de plusieurs autrcs C[ni out signe leur marque ordinaire.
The baptismal and other registers of the Okl Cathedral of
St. Louis are preserved in the Chancery office of the Archdiocese
of St. Louis.
-•' Transci-ipt of the Poi-tage des Sioux Registers in the St.
Louis University Archives.
-^ Father Du Jaunay, Jesuit missionary, liaptizcd at Mackinac
in June, 176-i, ''Louis, legitimate son of Amiot and Marianne
his wife, said infant born at the river Aux Plains near to Chicago
early in October last." Edwix O. Wood, Historic Mackinac,
1: 108.
28 Tin: ca'iiioijc ciukcii in ("iiicago
dressed in that yeai- l)y IJisliop Flaget of Bardslown to
the Holy See. "jMoreover, I heard during my excursion
that in the very midst of the Indians were four French
congregations belonging to my diocese ; one on the upper
^Mississippi, another in a ])lace usually designated as
Chicagou, still another on the shores of Lake Michigan
and a fourth towards the source of the Illinois River;
but lack of time and the prevalence of war have pre-
vented me from visiting them.""" It is interesting to
note in this connection that the locality of Chicago was
up to this period successively under the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction of the dioceses of Quebec, Baltimore and
Bardstown. It remained attached to Quebec approx-
imately from the last cjuarter of the seventeenth century
up to the erection in 1784 of the Prefecture Apostolic
of the United States, to which it was then transferred
with the rest of the former French possessions east of
the Mississippi. From the Prefecture- Apostolic of the
United States, which became the diocese of Baltimore
in 1789, it passed to Bardstown when that sec was
erected in 1808 with the old NorthAvest Territory in-
cluded in its jurisdiction.-'
■° A traiisiM'ipt of the Lutin oii^iiial is in tlic St. Louis Uni-
versity Archives. The document is dated Bardstown. April 11.
ISlo. It has recently been reproduced with English translation
and annotations in the Catholic Ilistorical Eevieiv, 1: 305. Hub-
bard, the pioneer fur-trader, states that on his arrival in Chicago
in 1818, there were only two French families living in the jilaee,
those of A. Ouilmette and J. B. Beaul)ien. llie Autobiography
of Gnrdon Saltonstall Uubbard, Lakeside Press, Chicago, p. ."^9.
The ' ' French congregation ' ' at Chicago, referred to by Bishoji
Flaget in his report of 1815, evidently included Catholics residing
in the outlying districts.
"'Chicago was apparently for a while in the diocese of De-
L
2i&^ /
Fatlier Gabriel Richard, of the Society of St. Suplice, wlio said Mass and
preached in Chica<io in 1S21. He was delegate to Conp;rcss from Michigan
Territory, a nnitiuc distinction, as no other Catholic cleroynian of the
country has held similar otlrice. His statue, with Cadillac's, adoins the
facade of the City Hall of Detroit, with which metropolis, in its jnoneer
stage of development, his ministerial career is chielly identitied. Original
painting by Lewis, dated ai)])roxiinatcly IS^S-lSliO, now the property of the
University of Detroit, to which it was juesented in 1912 by the daugliters
of Mrs. Elenore St. Amour Thompson. Courtesy of the University of
Detroit.
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 29
During all these years the Chicago district was left oairici
without the ministrations of a Catholic priest. From ^'';'''""<''
the passing of Father Pinet at the dawn of the
eighteenth century down to 1821 no exercise of the
Catholic ministry is on record as having taken place
at the mouth of the Chicago River or in its vicinity.-'"
The distinction of being the first clergyman kno^v^l to
have officiated there after that interval belongs to
Father Gabriel Richard, who arrived in Cliicago from
Detroit in September, 1821.
"rifteen days later, thirty days in all from Mackinac, I
arrived at a post called Chicago, near a little river of the same
name, ten leagues to the northwest of the southernmost point
of Lake Michigan. I said Mass in the house of a Canadian
and preached in the afternoon to the American garrison.
^ Business of another kind brought me to Chicago. I had
been invited by one of the Potawatomi chiefs, who lived near
the old Jesuit mission of St. Joseph, situated on a river of
the same name, to be present at a treaty in Chicago which
the Indian tribes were going to make at that place with his
Excellency, our Governor [Cass]. Contrary winds having
detained me two weeks or twenty days longer than I ex-
pected, it fell out that the treaty was over (when I arrived).
I had hoped to be able to support the Indians in the petition
troit, the original southern line of tliat diocese, as erected in
1833, having i-un from the mouth of the Maumee west to the
Mississippi. A reproduction of a contemporary map indicating
Chicago as within the limits of the diocese of Detroit accom-
panies Dean O'Brien's sketch of the Detroit diocese in the
Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collection, 9: 135.
"'' Rev. Michael Levadoux, a Sulpician, passed tlirough Chi-
cago in 1790 on his way from Cahokia to Detroit. "Then, con-
tinuing my journey, I reached the borders of Lake Micliigan,
that is to say, a village called Chicago. I remained there only a
day and a lialf. I was visited Ijy a great Indian chieftain and a
large number of his braves, I embarked on the Lake the Sth of
July." Eecords American CatJiolic Uistorical Society, 20: 259.
30 THE CATHOLIC CIiriU'I[ IX CHICAGO
which they were going to present and which they did actually
present for a Catholic priest at St. Joseph's like the Jesuits.
The outcome of it all was that they were given a Baptist
missionary." -^
The Canadian in whose liouse Father Richard said
IMass on this occasion was, in all probability, Jean
Ba])tiste Beaubien, Indian trader and agent of the
American Fur Company at Chicago, who settled there
permanently shortly after the Fort Dearborn massacre.'®
His home at the period of Father Richard's visit was in
the so-called "Dean House", which he purchased in
1817 from a Mr. Dean, sutler to the Fort, and wliich
stood south of that structure and near what is now
the intersection of Randolph Street and Michigan Ave-
nue."" Here, then, was apparently offered up the first
Mass in Chicago after it had become a settlement of
w'hite people. As to the discourse preached by the mis-
sionary to the garrison, it may safely go on record as
the first sermon preached in modern Chicago. The
language of the sermon appears to have been English,
as the soldiers could have understood no other, and as
Father Richard, though a native-born Frenchman, had
learned by this time to express himself with more or less
ease in the tongue of his adopted country.^^ Corrol)or-
■'* Annalcs de la Propagation dc la Foi, ,3: 342.
""The precise date of J. B. Roaiilnon's permanent scUk'nicnt
in rinoa<^o appears to be open to (lis[)iit('. See Quaife, op. cit.,
27S.
""AXBKEAS, Op.cit.,1.
'' A statement attriljutod to the pioneer Baptist missionary,
Isaac McCoy, is interesting in tliis connection. ' ' In the forepart
of October I attended at Chicago, tlie payment of an annuity
by Dr. Wolcott, United States Indian Agent, and, through his
])oliteness, addressed the Indians on the subject of our mission.
On tlic 9th of October, 1825, I preached in English, which, as I
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 31
ative evidence on this latter point is supplied by the
fact that in 1823 the missionary was elected delegate to
Congress from ^Michigan Territory, being the only
Catholic priest who ever held a seat in the National
House of Representatives. It is significant that this
priest, who was the first clergyman to preach the word
of God in Chicago, should have put that place under
other obligations to him by rendering it services of a
material order — for the only speech he made in Congress
was one urging the opening of a puljlic highway between
Chicago and Detroit.^"
Nine years were to pass before another Catholic ^^tcphen
priest was to set foot in Chicago. In October, 1830, Badin,is3o
Father Stephen Theodore Badin, the first priest or-
dained in the United States, made a missionary excur-
sion to Chicago from the Catholic Potawatomi Mission
near Niles, INIiehigan, of which establishment he was
resident pastor.
"I am on my way to Chicago or Fort Dearborn on the
west shore of Lake Michigan in the state of Illinois, fifty
miles from here; no priest has been seen there since eight
[nine] years ago, when Mr. Kiehard paid the place a visit.
Along the entire route I shall not come across a single house
or hut. I am waiting here for a party of good Cfitholic Indi-
ans, Chief Pokegan at head of them, who are charged with
the carrying of my chapel equiiiment. I had started out with.-
out them in order to avail myself of the company of two
Canadians, whose services I engaged as interpreters, and who
am informed, was the first sermon ever delivered at or near
that place." Andreas, o}). cit., 1: 288.
^- Catholic EncycJopedia, art. Bev. Gabriel Bicliard. Import-
ant articles on Father Richard are to be found in the volumes of
the Collections and EesearcJics of the Michigan Pioneer and His-
torical Society.
32 THE CATHOLIC CIMKCIl IX CIIICAC.O
must l)y this tiiiu' have ai-i'ixcd in Chicago, where I intended
to celebrate the divine mysteries on Holy Rosary Sunday;
but fearing that my Indians would not come up in time, T
stopped at the river ("alamic [Grand Calumet] in the hope
of receiving my chapel tliis evening or tomorrow morning.
Besides, if I had continued on the way with the two Canadians,
I should have found it necessary to slee]> in the open, a thing
I thought nothing of at one time — hul when a man is beyond
sixty, he must avoid that sort of thing, unless he be accus-
tmued to live like the Indians and tradei's, to whom it is all
one whether they sleep indoois or outdoors.
Man i)roposes, God disposes. My party of Indians ar-
rived three days too late, and I was put to the necessity of
si^ending the night in the woods ten miles from Chicago. I
found there another band Ironi the Kickapoo tribe, who live
in an immense prairie in Illinois, along the Vermilion river
at a distance of about one hundred miles from Chicago.
Some time before these good people had sent their compli-
ments to Chief Pokegan. telling liim at the same time that
they envied him the hapi)iness of liaving a pastor." ^■'
The letter of Father Badin from which the above
passage is cited is silent about his work in Chicago on
the occasion of this visit of 1830.^* It is said that he
^'' .InnaUs dr la Propanation di la fox, (! : 154.
^'According to G. S. Hul)bard in the Chicago Evening Jour-
nal, April 29, 1SS2, Father Badin baptized in Chicago, Alexander
Beaubieu and his two sisters INIoniquc aud Julia aud also the
mixed blood Potawatomi chief, Alexander Robinson. The state-
ment cannot be verified. Though the name of Father Theodore
Steplieii Badin, tlie first prirst ordained in Tlir United States,
has found its way into sdinc ac<i>uiits of early Catholicity in
Chicago as that of tlie first ck'rgynian to visit the place after
the passing of the early Jesuit missionaries, a diligent sifting
of tlie Instorical evidence bearing thereon fails to bring the
Father mentioned into any such connection. Unfortunately, the
baptismal records and the otlier memoranda covering the early
period of Father Badin 's long missionary career were lost or
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 33
attended the town more than onee from his Potawatomi
jMission on the St. Joseph, conducting services in Fort
destroyed at some time during his stay with the Potawatomi at
the Catholic mission-center near Niles, Michigan. (Cf. Spalding,
Sketches of Early Kentitcl-y, Preface). That Badin was in
Chicago in 1796 is asserted by Axdreas, History of Chicago, 1:
288, and by Hurlburt, Antiquities of Chicago, .382. Tlie source
of the assertion may be traced to a communication to the Chicago
Evening Journal for April 29, 1882, from the pen of Gurdon
Saltonstall Hubbard, one of the pioneer settlers of the city.
Therein the writer declares that Father Badin, on the occasion
of a visit to Chicago in 1846, presented Mrs. John Murphy, a
resident of the city since 1836, with a book of a religious char-
acter containing his autograph, saying to her, "this is the fiftieth
anniversary of ray arrival in Chicago. ' ' This oliviously would fix
the date of Father Badin 's first visit to Chicago as 1796. It is
difiicult, however, to reconcile this alleged date with certain well
anthenticated circumstances of the priest 's early career. Between
the years 1793 and 1819, Father Badin was a missionary in
Kentucky, nor docs it apjjear that he made an extended journey
outside of the state at any time during that i^eriod except once
in 1806, when he accompanied Bishop Flaget on an episcopal
visitation to Vincennes. In a brochure from the i)en of Father
Badin published in Paris in 1821 under the title progrcs de la
Mission du Kentucky and also published in the Annales de la
Fropagation de la Foi and reproduced in an English translation in
the Catholic World for September, 1875, the writer states that he
was the sole priest in Kentucky from April, 179-4, to 1797. Dur-
ing this period the nearest Catholic clergyman to him was Rev.
Mr. Rivet, stationed at Vincennes on the Wabash River, with
whom he exchanged letters but whom he could not visit owing
to the demands made upon his time by the scattered Kentucky
missions. "But the respective needs of the two missions never
permitted them [Fathers Badin and Rivet] to cross the desert
in order to visit one another or to offer mutual encouragement
and consolation in the Lord." {Catholic World, 21: 826). If
Father Badin, during the period 1794-1797 could not afford a
visit to his fellow priest at Vincennes, it seems quite improbable
34 THE CATHOLIC CIIURCII IN CHICAGO
Deai'l)orn. on which occasion ^Tr. Anson Taylor essayed
to discharge the duties of ^lass-servei- ; l)ut no record
that he found time to make a journey of at least twice the
distance, such as would bring him to Chicago or what was to
become such. Moreover, it is significant that Father Badin,
though he comments in the brochure referred to on the hardships
of a missionary's life in early Kentucky, makes no mention
therein of a journey to the shores of Lake Michigan in 1796,
an incident highly deserving of record, had it taken place, nor
does Archbishop Spalding in his Kentucky Sketches, a work which
supplies many additional details of Father Badin 's pioneer days
down to 1826, make mention of any missionary journey under-
taken by the latter in that direction. Finally, the matter appears
to be put beyond dispute by Father Badin 's own letters written
from Kentucky during the period 1796-1799, in which he makes
absolutely no mention of any journey of his outside the state,
but on the contrary declares his purpose not to leave his parish-
ioners for any great length of time for fear some of them should
die without the sacraments. Hccords of the American Catholic
Historical Society, 19: 258-275, 454-482. It is impossible there-
fore, in the face of the strong available evidence to the contrary,
to accept without reserve the statement that Father Badin was
in Chicago in 1796. As to the incident referred to above as
occurring between Father Badin and Mrs. John Murphy some
confusion of dates in the reporting of it would seem to have
occurred.
In the case of Father Badin 's alleged visit to Chicago in
1822, the evidence to the contrary is more direct. (For mention
of this visit cf. Catholic Encyclopedia, art. Archdiocese of Chi-
cago; also Moses Kirklaxd, History of Chicago 2: 303. "He,
[Father Badin] probably never made this point [Chicago] his
home, but that he returned in 1822 is shown by an authentic
record of the baptism in that year of Alexander Beaubien. As
far as known, this was the first administration of the sacrament
to any white person within the neighborhood of Fort Dearborn."
KiKKLAND. In a letter of Father Badin descriptive of his
missionary labors at the Potawatomi mission near Xiles, Michigan,
which was published in the Annales de la Propagation de la
Father Stcphon Theodore Badin, fust Catholic priest oidained
in the United States, who conducted services in Chica<;o in Octo-
ber, 1830. From an engraving preserved in Saint Mary's Sem-
inary, Baltimore, the portrait l)eing an excellent likeness of the
subject according to the testimony of the Reverend P. P. Denis,
S. S., a personal acquaintance of Father Badin 's.
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 35
of any visit to Chicago other than the one mentioned
above is to be found in his pul)lishcd letters.^"' The
Foi, 6: 154, he narrates a missionary excursion which he made
to Chicago in 1830. He prefaces his account, which is extremely
meagre in details, with the statement that no Catholic priest
had been in Chicago since Father Gabriel Richard's visit. This
he declares to have taken place eight years previous to his own
visit of October, 1830. (Father Badin is in error here. Father
Richard's visit occurred nine years before, in September, 1821.
Cf. Annales de la Propagation de La Foi, 3: 342). The inference
therefore must be drawn that Father Badin, on his own admission,
was not in Chicago between September, 1821, and October, 1830.
As to the authentic record of the baptism of Alexander
Beaubien by Father Badin at Chicago in 1822, to which Kirkland
'makes reference in the passage cited above, no evidence that
such record exists has come to hand. Edwin O. Gale in his
Beminiscences of Early Chicago and Vicinity, 131, gives the date
of Alexander Beaubien 's baptism by Father Badin as 1829. "His
[Jean Baptiste Beaubien 's] son, Alexander, who was born here
on January 28, 1822, claims at this writing. May 1900, to be the
oldest living person born in the place he believes himself
to be the first child baptized in this vicinity. Father Stephen T.
Badin was a Catholic priest who came to Chicago with the Indians
from St. Joseph's Mission and stopped at the Colonel's house,
where the baptism took place in 1829, as there was no church
in Chicago at that time."
The dates 1822 and 1829 for the alleged liaptism of Alex-
ander Beaubien by Father Badin, besides being irreconcilable
with the missionary's certain absence from Chicago during the
period 1821-1830, must also be set aside through evidence fur-
nished by the Baptismal Eegister of St. Mary's Church, Chicago,
which contains an entry in Father St. Cyr 's handwriting, attesting
the baptism on June 28, 1834, of Alexander Beaubien, son of
Jean Baptiste Beaubien and Josette Lafromboise.
For a sketch of Father Badin, cf. Rev. N. J. Howlet in
Historical Eecords and Studies, U. S. Catholic Historical Society,
4: 101 et seq.
^' Beminiscences of Augustine D. Taylor, Historical Scrap-
36 TIIK CATIIOMC CHUKCII IX ClIlCAdO
l)aptisiiial and marriage records of liis eai'ly missionary
career are no longer extant, having been lost some time
during his stay among the Potawatomi. The presence
of Chief Pokegan in Father Badin's retinue as carrier
of the altar equipment lends an interesting touch to
the missionary's visit to Chicago in October, 1830. Few
more appealing portraits of Indian virtue are on record
than that of this well known civil chief of the St. Joseph
Potawatomi, whom a tradition, more picturesque than
authentic, represents as having rowed the Kinzies
across the waters of Lake ^lichigan from the smoking
ruins of Fort Dearborn to a place of safety on the St.
Joseph.^"
Pioneer Chicago was incorporated as a town in June, 1833,
Laymen- ^^^ ^^'^^ clcction of towu-trustces taking place in August
jcanBaptiste of that ycar."' The Catliolics in and around the place
Beaubien
l)0(ik, Lilirarv of St. lonatius College, Chicago. "Father Badin
would come here to celebrate serTices at the headquarters of
Col. Whistler in the garrison. Anson Taylor would try to assist
him. but did not know the prayers."
''■ Charles H. Baktlett, Talcs of Eonkakte Land. The sup-
posed rescue of the Kinzies by Pokegan (Pokagon) and Tope-in-
a-bee furnishes the theme of one of these stories of the Potawa-
tomi Indians along the Kankakee valley. Interesting side-lights
on the character of Pokegan will be found in the An naif s de la
Propagation de la Foi, 6: 154-1G5.
37 < < rpj^g close of the year 1833 found Chicago a legally or-
ganized town. Its population at the time has been variously
estimated at from one hundred and fifty to one thousand. No
record of any enumei'ation of the inhal)itants is extant, and all
statements as to the actual population at that time are estima-
tions based on the whims, impressions and rumors of the time. It
required a poi)ulation of 150 to form a corporate town organiza-
tion, and it is Imt probable that Chicago had more tlian the
recpiii-ed numlx'r. Ba.sed on the number of voters (twenty-eight)
Col. Jean Baptistc Braiilucii, pictintsquo civilian figure in
the village days of Chicago. A native of Detroit, where he was
liorn in 1787, lie settled shortly after tiie Fort Dearborn massacre
in Chicago and there took up and followed with success the
occupation of Indian tradei-. In 1817 he purchased the Dean
house, within the limits of the Fort Deaiborn reservation, to
which tract he afterwards laid claim, the litigation that thereupon
ensued being a cause celebre among Chicago land-suits. The
projierty at stake, embracing the city-blocks between the River,
the Lake, Madison and State Streets ivpresented real-estate hold-
ings of fabulous value today. The chain-of -title of the Mont-
gomery "Ward and Company property at Michigan Avenue and
Madison Street, originally (1839) purchased by Father O'Meara
from the Goveinment as a second site for Saint Mary's Church,
includes a quit-claim deed from Col. Beaubien, whose claim
to the Fort Dearl)orn reservation was in the end definitely re-
jected by the United States Supreme Court.
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 37
numbered at this time about one hundred and thirty. As
the total population of the town, according to a calcula-
tion made by Andreas on the basis of the poll-list of the
election of August, 1833, did not exceed 140 at that date,
the Catholics must have comprised the larger part of
the inhalntants. The majority of them were either pure
French or of mixed French and Indian blood. The most
conspicuous figure among the Chicago Catholics was
Jean Baptiste Beaubicn. He was born in Detroit of a
French-Canadian family settled there early in the
eighteenth century. A quick, shrewd intelligence, com-
bined with a good address and a fair degree of educa-
tion enabled him to take an important and often a
controlling part in public affairs. Probably it is a
testimony to his standing in the community greater
than may at first sight appear that he presided in the
capacity of moderator over the meetings of the village
debating society, the first organization of its kind
Chicago knew. His claim to a large tract of land on
the lake-front in Chicago, the same on which he had
settled as early as 1817, though allowed by the State
Supreme Court of Illinois, was rejected by the Supreme
at the first election and allowing a population of 5 to each voter,
the resident population was 140 in August, 1833, at the time the
first election was held." Andreas, 1: 129.
The petition addressed in April, 1833, by the Catholics of
Chicago to Bishop Rosati of St. Louis declared their number to
be 100. The signers of this petition, together with the members
of their families, actually numbered 128. Patrick Shirreflf, an
English traveller who visited Chicago in 1833, estimated the
number of houses in the town at about a hundred and fifty;
from which it would appear that Andreas 's estimate of the popu-
lation of the town at that date as only one hundred and fifty
is considerably below the mark. See Quaife, op. cit., 349.
38 THE CATHOLIC CIIT'RCri IN CHICAGO
Court of the United States, and lie tasted the bitter
experience of seeing liis home sohl over his head."^
'*Huulbukt's Chicago Antiquities, pp. 302-.'j26, " Beaubi-
eniana," contains detailed information about the famous " Beau-
bien Claim." Sec also Andreas, History of Chicago, I, for
sketches of Jean Baptiste Beaubien (p. 84) Mark Beaul)icn
(p. 106) Alexander Robinson (p. 108) and Billy Caldwell (p.
108). The Beaubiens of Detroit were conspicuous in the early
history of that city. The Antoine Beauluen farm of over three
hundred acres included the g,round now covered in part by the
buildings of the University of Detroit and until recently by the
Convent of the Sacred Heart on Jeffersoji Avenue, the site and
endowment for the latter being a gift to the nuns from Antoine
Beaul)ien. An idea of the numerous connections of the Detroit
Beauljiens may be gathered from the fact that their names alone
fill about one hundred and twenty-pages in Father Christian
Denissen's monumental Genealogy of Detroit French Families,
now preserved in MS. in the Burton Historical Collection of De-
troit.
It is interesting to note in this connection that Colonel
Jean Baptiste Beaubien was a claimant to an interest in the
Antoine Beaubien farm in Detroit, and on one occasion attempted
to institute ouster proceedings against property-owners in the
district ; but he was as unsuccessful in having his Detroit claim
allowed by the courts as he was in the case of his Chicago
claims. For a contemporary protest against the ejection of
Colonel Beaubien from his Chicago home on Michigan Avenue,
within the limits of the old Fort Dearborn Reservation, see the
Daily American, June 18, 1S?)0 (Chicago Historical Collection).
"Shall the veteran citizen who lias resided here during all Die
horrors of savage warfare, who lias undergone all tlie privations
and vicissitudes of l)oiiler life for more than twenty years — shall
he be forced to seek another resting place for his aged limbs?
Shall he be forced to provide a new home for his wife and little
ones? Shall he, the hospitable and generous old man whom we
all know and respect be driven from a little remnant of the
soil for which he fought and in which some of his offspring
repose in everlasting sleep? Justice, humanity and Christian
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS
Mark, a younger brother of Jean Baptiste Beaubien, MarJc
was also a notable figure in the pioneer stage of Chicago
history. He came to the place in 1826 and after pur-
chasing of James Kinzie a log-cabin which stood on the
east side of Market Street a short distance south of
Lake Street, built a frame addition to it in which he
opened a tavern and hotel. The hotel bore the name
of the Sauganash in honor of the mixed-blood Potawa-
tomi chief, Billy Caldwell, to whom had been given the
soubriquet of Sauganash or Englishman. Besides the
Beaubiens, there were among the Catholic residents of
Chicago in 1833, Antoine Ouilmette, a settler there
since 1790 and one of the first white men to take up
his residence in the place; Claude and Joseph Lafram-
boise, traders of mixed French and Indian blood, orig-
inally from Milwaukee; Pierre Le Clerc, (Pierish Le
Claire) also Indian nnxed-blood, who fought in the
Fort Dearborn affair and in his capacity of interpreter
arranged the terms of surrender; and Daniel Bourassa,
whose cabin stood on the west side of the river a short
distance south of the forks.'"
charity forbid." Beaul)ieu's claim rested on his jHirchase May
28, 1835, at the land office in Chicago, of the southwest fractional
quarter of section 10, etc., a tract twenty-five acres in extent,
the price paid being $1.25 an acre. The tract, which was known
as the Fort Dearborn Military Eeservatiou, comprised the land
bounded by State and Madison Streets, the river and the lake.
When the suit was decided definitely against Beaubien, he was
required to deliver up the receipt issued to him by the Land
Office, the purchase money being thereupon refunded to him. In-
teresting data concerning the Beaubiens will be found in the
article. The BeauMens of Chicago, by Frank O. Beaubien, son
of Mark Beaubien, in the Illinois CatJioIic Historical Bevieiv, 2:
348-364.
Beaubien
40 TIIK rATIIOLTC rUT'RCMI IX CHICAGO
Billy 'Die Chicago Catholics a1 Ihis ))ci'i()(l iiicliulcd also
Alexander '''"' ^^^'*^ half-hvcod Potawatoiiii chiefs, Billy Caldwell
Robinson aiid Alcxaiulci' l?o])inson. They wciv widely and favor-
ably known as loyal fi'icnds of the whites. Thon<2:h not
])resent a1 llie Fort Dearborn massacre, they are said,
lhoii<i'h the ti-nth of the tradition has been (iiiestioned,
to have ai'rived on the scene the da\' following; and
succeeded by their intinence in savin<? the lives of the
Kinzies and others who had escaped the fury of the
30 pjpj.j.p Lp ClciT (Piorish La Clair or Lo Claire) aceom-
pniiied liis Potawatonii kinsfolk to tlu> Council PjlufFs and Kaw
Ri\-(M- r('S(MV( s. Acconliiio- to Rieliard Smith l^lliittt. Iiidiaii A<;'ent
at Council Jiluilt's, a daugiiter of his was educated at the Hacred
Heart Convent in St. Louis. Le Claire was one of the Potawa-
tonii orators that went to 'Washinj;ton in 1S4,') to discuss the
cession of the Iowa reserve to tiie (lovernnient. ''Peerish Le
Claii-e, in Indian lingo, was to refer to some former treaties,
the promises of which had not been kept by the government,
and was to ex{)atiate on the charms of the country about
Chicago wliere the frogs in Ihe niaishes sang more sweetly than
liii'ds in other parts, — a land of beauty which tliey had ceded
to the gdvernnient f(U- :i mere tritle. altiiough it had been their
home so Icuig that tliey had traditions of Pieri'ot, the iirst white
man who ever set foot upon it two lunulred years ago. ' ' Elliott,
Notes Tal-en in Sixty Years, St. Louis, 1883, p. 208. Le Claire
died at the Kaw River reserve March 28, 1849, attended in his
last moments by a Jesuit priest from the Catholic Potawatonii
Mission of St. Mary's, Kansas. Lc Claire's name, witii tiiose of
Joseph Laframboise' and Half Day, was attached to a jietition
addressed to tiie go\-eininent in 18-48 in favor of the estaliiislmient
of Catholic schools among the Potawatonii of tlie Kansas n^serve.
Files of the Indian Bureau, Washington. The name of the
Potawatonii chief. Half Day, is b(uiie l)y a village of lliat name
on the Chicago-Libertyville road.
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 41
Indians on the fateful August 15, 1812. Later the two
chiefs were instrumental in restraining the Potawatomi
from participation in the Winnebago and Black Hawk
wars. Caldwell, the son of an English army officer and
a Potawatomi woman, was attached to the Indian hero
Teeumseh in the capacitj^ of secretary, and fought with
him at the battle of Thames, in which the latter per-
ished. He moved with his Potawatomi kinsfolk to the
Council Bluffs reservation, where he died September 28,
1841. Alexander Robinson was the son of a Scotch
trader and an Ottawa woman. He married in 1826
Catherine Chevalier, daughter of the chief of a Potawa-
tomi band, on whose death he succeeded to the chief fancy
of the l)and. He received from the government a
i"eservation of land on the Desplaines River, where he
died in 1872.^^'
'" Alexander Robinson 's cabin on the banks of the Desplaines
was about six miles north of Riverside, Township of Leyden,
Cook County, Illinois. In November, 1920, the forest preserve
district of Cook County acquired title to eighty acres of the
original Robinson reserve, the price paid being $12,600. The
Circuit Court gave permission to Mrs. Mary Ragor, a daughter
of the chief, eighty-five years old, to continue to leside on the
lands, on which she was born. The chief's two daughters, Cynthia
and Mary, were pupils at the Sisters of Mercy Academy, Wabash
and Madison Street, in the early 'fifties. ' ' Among the pupils of
St. Xavier's Academy and boarding School in the days that I
am recalling, were the daughters of Chief Robinson of the Pota-
watomi tribe of Indians. I must say that the two girls, — Cynthia
and Mary Robinson were the best behaved girls in the school.
They were in every waj' a credit to the school. The chief and his
wife would often come in from the Reservation at Desplaines,
in 1852, and stop at the convent all night." Mrs. B. K. Gar-
Deodat
42 TITE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
The Taylors, Catholics Other than those of French or Indian stock
o)?r" * "^^'*^"^'^ ^^^^' ^^^ Chicago in 1833. The most prominent of
Auoiisiine this element were the two Taylors, Anson and Augustine
Deodat, both converts from Episcopalianism. In 1832,
Anson, with his brother Charles II., built at Randolph
Street the first bridge over the Chicago River, the Pota-
watomi Indians defraying one-half of the expense.
Augustine Deodat Taylor, who arrived in Chicago in
the summer of 1833, Avas an architect and l)uildcr.
His was the distinction of erecting the first four
Catholic churches in the town, St. ]\Iary's, St. Patrick's,
St. Peter's and St. Joseph's.
Chicago, as was noted above, came under the juris-
diction of the Bishop of Bardstown on the erection of
the latter see in 1808. But this new ecclesiastical dis-
trict was too vast in extent to lie administered by a
single hand and even in the lifetime of Bishop Flaget
ten dioceses were formed out of its territory. By ar-
rangement with that prelate and Bishop Rosati of
St. Louis, the latter was given the power of Vicar-
General of the Bishop of Bardstown for the "Western
moiety of the State of Illinois. ''^^ This arrangement
RAGiiAX, Beminisccnces of Early Clti-cago, in lUinois Catholic
Jlistorical Hi view, 2: 2G6. See also in the same Review, 2: ?>5~-
."'(31, a firapliic account of Robinson's friendly intorvention in
favor of tlie whites during the Black Hawk War.
" Thr Mdropolitan Catholic Calendar for 1834, p. 95, uses
the terms, ' ' one-half the State of Illinois acjolning the Missis-
sippi River." As early as 1818, Bishop Du Bourg had arranged
with Bishop Flaget to take care of the Catholic settlements on
the east bank of the Mississippi. Spalding, Life of Bishop
Flaget, 177. According to Rev. Joliu Kotheiisteiner (Illinois
Catholic Historical Bevieio, 2: 412), "the impression at this time
EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 43
appears to have been later modified so as to bring the
northeastern portion of Illinois also under the provi-
sional jurisdiction of the Bishop of St. Louis. Ecclesi-
astically, Chicago thus became dependent on St. Louis.
Respectable, prosperous, with a population of 10,000
contrasting with Chicago's paltry 150 and with almost
seventy years of recorded history to look back upon,
the metropolis of ^lissouri might well command the
attention and respect of the mushroom settlement of
yesterday at the outlet of the Chicago River. As a
circumstance pointing in some measure to the greater
importance of the older settlement, it may be noted that
some of the pioneer residents of Chicago had even at
this early date found their way to St. Louis or its
vicinity. We have seen above that members of the
Le Mai and Pointe de Saible families of Chicago had
their children baptized in St. Louis in 1799. Again,
Captain John Whistler, who established Fort Dearborn
in 1803, and more than-any one else, in the opinion of
Quaife, deserves to be called the "Father of Chicago,"
was later stationed at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis,
[1833] was that Bishop Rosati desired to have the entire state
of Illinois placed under his jurisdiction. Bishop Flaget states
that 'Bishop Rosati exercises his jurisdiction upon a vast tract
of the Illinois, Init he has never determined the line where he
ceases exercising his administration. ' Baltimore seemed favorable
to his claims. But Bishop England together with Bishop Rese of
Detroit and Bishop Dubois of New York formed a party as
against the followers of the Archbishop of Baltimore. The fact
that only two-thirds and not the whole of the State of Illinois
was placed under Bishop Rosati of St. Louis in 1834 is owing
to the exertions of Bishop England. Of course all were working
for the good of the Church as they saw it."
44 THE CATHOLIC CHTKCH IX CHICAGO
where he died in 1829.-*- To cite still aiiotlici' instance,
Captain Heald, commandant of Fort Dearborn at the
time of the massacre and the central figure in the
tragedy, was latei- a i-esident of St. Charles, Missouri,
some twenty-five miles to the west of St. Lonis.'^ But Ave
do not recall any instance of St. Louis peoj^le at this
early period shifting tlicii' residence to Chicago.
'- Cyclopcdid of National Biograpliu, (5: 4(;.'l. Tlic iiaine of
Major William Whistler, son of Captain John Whistler, is sij;ned
to tli(^ IS.i.j petition of the Chicaj^o Catholics. Three children of
John Whistler and Esther Baillie, the former a son of Major
William Whistler, were baptized by Father T. O'Meara, June 15,
1838, in St. Mary's Church, Chicago.
" QUAIFE, op. cit., 405.
Father John Mary Iroiiaeus St. Cyr, 1803-1883, first Catholic
resident priest of modern Chicago. From a photograph of date
sometime in the 'seventies.
CHAPTER II
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR,
1833-1834
Under tlie impression that they were within the Petition of
bounds of his spiritual jurisdiction, the Catholics of
Chicago addressed themselves to the Bishop of St. Louis iss
when they resolved in 1833 to petition for a resident
pastor. Their petition ran as follows :
"We, the Catholics of Chicago, Cook Co., 111., lay before
you the necessity there exists to have a pastor in this new and
flourishing city. There are here several families of French
descent, born and brought up in the Roman Catholic faith
and others quite willing to aid us in supporting a pastor, who
ought to be sent here before other sects obtain the upper
hand, which very likely they will try to do. We have heard
several jDersons say were there a priest here they would join
our religion in preference to any other. We count almost
one hundred Catholics in this town. We will not cease to pray
until you have taken our imjDortant request into considera-
tion.'' 1
^ Andkeas, History of Chicago, 1 : 289. The following signed
the petition, the tigure after each individual's name indicating
the number of persons in his family: Thomas J. V. Owen, 10;
J. B. Beanbien, 14 ; Joseph Laf ramboise, 7 ; Jean Pothier, 5 ;
Alexander Robinson, 8 ; Pierre Leclerc, 3 ; Alexis Laf ramboise, 4 ;
Claude Laf ramboise, 4; Jacques Chassut, 5; Antoine Ouilmet;
Leon Bourassa, 3 ; Charles Taylor, 2 ; J. Bt. Miranda and sisters,
3 ; Louis Chevalier and family, 3 ; Patrick Walsh, 2 ; John Mann,
4; B. Caldwell, 1; Dill Saver, 1; Mark Beaubien, 12; Dill
Vaughn, 1; James Vaughn, 1; J. Bt. Rabbie, 1; J. Bt. Poulx;
45
Chicago
Catholics,
46 TIIK ("A'l'HOLIC (MIT'RCII IN' CHICAGO
The a])i)cal of the Catholics of Chicago to Bishop
Rosati reached him at a providential juncture. A few
days before it came into his liands, he had raised to the
])riesthood a young Frencliman, John Mary Trenaeus St.
( 'yi-, whose services were now available for whatever
cornel' of tlie Lord's vineyard the prelate miglit see fit to
assign him. Accordingly, under date of Ai)ril 17, 1833,
Bishop Rosati signed a document charging Father St.
Cyr with the spiritual care of the Catholics of Chicago.-
J. B. Tabeaux, 1 ; J. Bt. Durocher, 1 ; J. Bt. Brorleur, 1 ; Mathias
Smith, 1; Antoine St. Ours, 1; Bazillo Dcsplat, 1; Cliarles
Monselle, 1 ; John Hondorf , 1 ; Dexter Apgood. 1 : Nelson Peter
Perry, 1; John S. C. Hogan, 1; Anson H. Tayk)r, 1; Louis
Francheres, 1 ; a total of 122. If to the list we add, the entry
on the reverse side of the petition, "Major Whistler's family
al)out () " the total becomes 128. The original copy of the peti-
tion is endorsed with these dates — "Received April 16, 1833.
Answered April 17, 1833." The above list has been compared
with the original document (in French) in the St. Louis Arch-
diocesan Archives and inaccuracies occurring in Andreas 's version
of the same have been corrected.
- The original of this document was lecently presented by
Arclibishop Glennon of St. Louis to Arclibishop Mundelein of
Chicago. The translation cited is in Andreas, op. cit., 1 : 290.
Bearing the same date as Bishop Rosati 's commission to Father
St. Cyr is a letter addressed by that prelate to Bishop Flaget.
"Having received a petition of the Catholics of Chicago, who
regarded me as tlieir diocesan bishop and demanded of me
a priest, showing the danger of losing a concession of two
thousand acres of land which the chiefs of the Pottawatomies
with the consent of the government have made to the Catholic
Church, l)y virtue of the jjowers of Vicar General, which yoi;
have given me, 1 will send Mr. St. Cyr, but on condition that
when the limits of the diocese are fixed I can recall him."
Illinois Catholic Historical Eevietc, 2: 412. The original of this
letter, in French, is in Bishop Rosati 's Letter-Book, IX.
/ >;
-/-
^^'^..^ I7;ji j ^
/.J
/
! /
/
/
/
j /
/
"UZtk.
Names affixed to petition of the Catholics of Chicago to
Bishop Rosati of Saint Louis for a resident priest. On the
reverse side is the entry, "Major Whistler's family, about
6." The document is endorsed in Bishop Rosati 's hand-
writing ''Received April 16, 1833. Answered April 17,
1833." Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives.
V'N "'^'JT
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 47
"Josepli Rosati, of the Congregation of Missions, by the
grace of God and of the Apostolic See, Bishop of St. Louis,
to the Rev. Mr. John Irenaeus St. Cyr, priest of our diocese,
health in the Lord:
Rev. Sir: — Whereas not a few Catholic men inhabiting
the town commonly called Chicago, and its vicinage, in the
State of Illinois, have laid before me that they, deprived of
all spiritual consolation, vehemently desire that I shall send
them a priest, who, by the exercise of his pastoral gifts,
should supply to them the means of performing the offices
of the Christian religion and providing for their eternal
salvation : wishing, as far as in me lies, to satisfy such a de-
sire, at once pious and joraiseworthy, by virtue of the powers
of Vicar-General to me granted by the most illustrious and
most reverend Bishop of Bardstown (Ky.), I depute you to
the Mission of Chicago and the adjoining regions within the
State of Illinois, all of which have hitherto been under the
spiritual administration of the said most illustrious and most
reverend Bishop of Bardstown, [and I] grant you, until re-
voked, all the powers as described in the next page, with the
condition, however, that as soon soever as it shall become
known to you that a new Episcopal See shall have been
erected and established by the Holy AiDostolie See from the
territory of other sees now existing, to that Bishoj) within
the limits of whose diocese the aforesaid Chicago mission is
included, you shall render an account of all those things
which shall have been transacted by you, and surrender the
place to such priest as shall be bj' him deputed to the same
mission, and you, with God's favor, shall return to our dio-
cese from which we declare you to be by no means separated
by this present mission.
Given at St. Louis from the Episcopal building, the 17th
day of April, 1833.
Joseph,
Bishop of St. Louis.
Jos. A. LuTZ, Secretary."
Father John Mary Irenaeus St. Cyr was a native f'";^'^''^/
"^ "^ I. St. Cyr
of France, having been born November 2, 1803, at
48 THE CATllOMC CIMKCII IN CHICAGO
Quincic, ("antoii of licaujcii, in the archdiocese of
Lyons. •• He spent four years at an elementary school
in his native place, and seven years at the college of
Largentier. Having there completed his classical studies,
he entered the Grand Seminary of Lyons, where he
studied ])hilosophy and tlieology. In Ihe beginning of
June, ISoL he h'ft the land of his birlh for America
and arrived in St. Louis in August of that year, being
one of the first clerical recruits secured at this period
for the diocese of St. Louis through the agency of the
French Association foi- the Proi)agation of the Faith.
Having spent eighteen months in the seminary of "the
Barrens," Perry County. ^lo., he was ordained deacon
in 1832 and on April 6, 1833, was raised to the priest-
hood hy Bishop Rosati. Twelve days later he set out
from St. Louis for his new field of labor in northern
Illinois in company with Mr. Anson Tayhii-. who liad
been dispatched from Chicago to serve as escort.-* A
journey of twelve days brought the pair to Chicago,
'A letter of Father St. Cyr's to the Hon. John Wcntworth
of Cliicago, written in the ciuly eighties, supplies most of the
data embodied in the sketch of the priest in Andreas, op. cit., 1.
Historical Scnrp-Book, Library of St. Ignatius College, Chicago.
A number of documents bearing on the life of Father St. Cyr,
including certificates of baptism and holy orders are reproduced
in the Illinois Catholic Historical Ecvicw, 1: 323-327. Father
St. Cyr's departure for Chicago was reported in the Shepherd of
the Valley, (St. Louis, Mo.), April 20, 183;!.
^Bishop Rosati 's Private Diary (Ephemerides Privatae) in
the Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives contains this entry under
date of April 18, 1833: "Pransi apud PP. Societatis in Collegio.
D. St. Cyr profectus est Chicag." "I took dinner with the
Fathers of the Society [Jesuits] at the College [St. Louis Uni-
versity], ilr. St. Cyr set out for Chicago."
Rt. Rev. Joseph Rosati, member of the Congregation of the
Missions and Bishop of Saint Louis, who in the same year, 1833,
gave Chicago and Kansas City their first resident priests in the
persons respectively of Father John Mary Irenaeus St. Cyr and
Father Benedict Roux. The years of Bishop Rosati 's episcopate
(1826-1843) witnessed a vast deal of missionary effort put forth
from St. Louis for the upliuilding of Catholicism in the Missis-
sippi Valley and Ijeyond. He was born in Italy in 1789 and
died in the same country, at Rome, September 25, 1843.
50 THE CATHOLIC CIirKCH IX CIIICACO
despite till' tine pi'oiiiises iiiaWe to jn-oxide the priest with
everything neeessary fur liis supjjort, despite all the honor
and coui'tesy and marks of respect with which the residents
of tile place received nie and which they continue to show
nie daily to the clia<>rin of the Protestant ministers, I should
have reason to comi)lain, Monseiiiiicui-. wcic you not to send
nie some assistance at the start to relieve my needs; for I
should not have money enough even to pay postage on a
letter were I to receive one, nor do T know how T am iioins:
to i)ay the transportation chariji's (ni my liiiiik. when it
comes, unless I have some help from you hcluicluuKl. 1 cannot
say Mass every day, as I should like lo, I'or I cannot always
obtain the wine and candles. I am eager to go to St. Joseph's,
as soon as [Rev.] Mr. Badin shall have returned from Ken-
tucky, but . Jt is true, as you will Icll me, that the
Catholics have promised to furnish everything necessary for
the support of tlie priest. Yes, Monseigneur, but they are
going to stai-t to build a little chapel and a presbytery with
money contributed by them for the jjurpose. Therefore, if
the money contributed falls short of the cost of tlic hnildings,
I shall be constantly in want.
As to what the Indian cliiel's are reported to have
promised for a Catholic church, nothing certain is known
up to this; we must wait and see what the outcome will be
of the treaty that is to take place next fall.
The eagei'ness shown by the people ol' Chicago, the
Protestants even, to have a Catholic church, allows us to
l)lace great hopes in the future. Every Sunday so far, I
have given an instruction alternately in English and French.
I aim particularly to remove ]irejudices by showing as clearly
as possible in what the teaching of the Church consists. In
my tirst instruction I explained the meaning of the invoca-
tion of the saints, the difference there is between praying to
God and i)raying to the saints, the meaning of the venera-
tion paid to images and relics and the doctrine of the Catholic
church regarding purgatoi'v. The second Sunday I preached
in p]nglish on the unity of the C'liurch of Jesus Christ. I
showed its necessity, bringing out also how this unity is
found in the Catholic Church. On Ascension day I preached
o S ri «n
^ ^^ o ^
al "I
Q .t: ^ "5
^^ CO o
■^ ii: . 1-1
a ^ r .
^' = Si S
^- .= ~ Ph
"=« E x ^
Pn ;- ^ o
^ X o ^
"i ill
--- 5 o ^
CC OJ o ^
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 51
in French on the real presence and afterwards explained in
English the ceremony of the Mass. Pentecost day I set forth
the rapid progress of the gospel throughout the world and
the great results it accomplished in reforming morals (this in
English). On Trinity day I explained in French the symbol
of St. Ambrose on the Holy Trinity and then the Apostles'
Creed, as also what we must absolutely know and believe in
to be saved. I tell you all this, Monseigneur, not to show
you what I have done, but that you may see whether what I
have done is right or wrong arid that I may learn how to
proceed in the future. A number of persons have approached
the tribunal of penance. I presume, Monseigneur, that you
put some books in my trunk, as you gave me to understand
at my departure. Up to the present I have been left to my
own resources. I should like exceedingly to have some in-
structions in English or French, some French catechisms and
two or three mission hymns.
To give you some idea of Chicago, I will tell you that
since my arrival more than twenty houses have been built,
while materials for new ones may be seen coming in on all
sides. The situation of Chicago is the finest I have ever
seen. Work is now proceeding on a harbor that will enable
lake-vessels to enter the town. Three arrived lately crowded
with passengers who came to visit these parts and in most
cases to settle down here. Everything proclaims that Chicago
will one day become a great town and one of commercial
imjoortance.
I have performed several Baptisms; and in this connec-
tion, Monseigneur, permit me to ask you something: Is
Baptism conferred by Baptist ministers valid? It is laid
down in theology, as far as I can remember, that the ministers
in conferring the sacraments must have the intention which
the Church has; but Methodist ministers confer Baptism, not
as something necessary for salvation, but as a ceremony of
the Church, and consequently they have not the intention
which the Church has, for she intends that Baptism be con-
ferred as something absolutely necessary for salvation.." ^
«The origiuals of Father St. Cyr's letters, written in French,
02 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
Pioneer Tlioiigh Father St. Cyr inaufjiirated the Catholic
Protestant ■ ■ . --,, . .
Churches ministry m Chicago in good season, the Protestant de-
nominations had been in the field at a still earlier date.
The Rev. William See and after him the Rev. Jes.se
Walker, both ordained ministers of the Methodist Epis-
copal church, conducted .services in Chicago before 1832.
The latter had for his meeting place a log-building popu-
larly known as "Father Walker's Log-Cabin" and situ-
ated at Wolf Point on the west side of the river at about
the intersection of the present Kinzie and Canal streets.
^Ir. See, besides preaching the Gospel. i)lied the trade
of a blacksmith. Mrs. Kinzie 's Wau-hun, a well-known
book portraying scenes from the pioneer history of
Chicago, records the impression produced on her by
one of Mr. See's sermons. The first Protestant church
organization, that of the Presbyterians, was formed
in June. 1833. by the Reverend Jeremiah Porter, an
army chaplain, who arrived at Fort Dearborn on ]\Iay
13 of the .same year, twelve days after the arrival of
Father St. Cyr. The Baptists organized a church in
October of the same year. Thus the year 1833 saw
church organizations regularly established in Chicago
for the first time, three churches, Catholic, Presbj-ferian
and Baptist being founded during that year; the fir.st
in May, the second in June and the third in October.
are preserved in the St. Louis Arcluliocesan Archives. Those
dated from Chicago are about fifteen in number, are addressed
in each instance to Bishop Rosati of St. Louis and record the
writer's impressions and experiences as he was engaged in the
work of building the first church and organizing the first Catholic
parish in Chicago. For the story of pioneer Catholicity in that
great city they constitute the most interesting and valuable doc-
umentarv material extant.
June, 1833
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 53
The Temple building, near the corner of Franklin and
South Water streets, was erected by a Dr. Temple, as
a meeting-place for the various Protestant denomina-
tions before they had churches of their own. It was
opened for service in August, 1833, and, with the ex-
ception of "Father AValker's" log-cabin, was the first
building erected in Chicago for religious worship."
Towards the end of June, 1833, Father St. Cyr
again addressed the Bishop of St. Louis:
"I received my trunk at last on the eighteenth of this fit. Cyr to
month. That it was so long on the way was not any fault of ^°^"'_''^l,
Mr. St. Cyr, who was pleased to charge himself with the task
of having it forwarded to me, but was owing to the fact that
when he arrived at Hotway [Ottawa], he found the water too
low to enable him to proceed by river as far as Chicago, and
was obliged to take another route, by land, to his destination
at Mackina [w]. My trunk accordingly remained at Hotway
[Ottawa] until the eighteenth of this month.
I am very much surprised that the Missal was not found.
for the third book I came to when I opened my trunk was
the Missal [1]. And wdiat I told you in my first letter, Mon-
seigneur, happened to me just so, namely, that I shouldn't
have money enough to pay for the transportation of my effects.
This cost me two dollars and a half and these I bad to borrow
from Mr. Beaubien, who shows me every kindness imaginable.
I have received a letter from [Eev.] Mr. Deseille, who is
at St. Joseph in [Rev.] Mr. Badin's place; he urges me to go
to St. Joseph, but this is impossible as I have not a penny
with wliich to defray the expenses of the Journey.* I beg you.
' Andreas, op. cit., 289, 315.
" Father Deseille was missionary to the Potawatomi Indians
of Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan from 1833 to his
death in 1837. As no priest could reach him in his dying mo-
ments, he dragged himself to the altar of his humble chapel,
opened the tabernacle door and communicated the sacred species
54 THE CATHOLIC CIH-K'CH IX CHICAGO
Monst'igiieur. to send nu' ;i little money to relieve my present
needs. Perhaps the future shall lind me better otf in this
respect.
I am well aware that the people should provide for all
my needs; they have promised to do so. If I can have from
them the wherewithal to build a little chapel, I shall consider
myself very fortunate and I hope that with the grace of God
and the assistance of charitable souls, our Divine Savior will
have a temple in Chicago where he will dwell continually in
the midst of us by his real presence in the Blessed Sacrament
of the Altar.
Our subscrij^tion for the church amounts now to 332
dollars; but according to the building plans agreed on, we
shall need five hundred dollars. It will be 36 feet long, 24
wide and 12 high.
As to the land w^hich the Indian chiefs are reported to
have promised, we cannot count on it, seeing that [Rev.] Mr.
Badin, to whom the Indians made the promise, did not fulfill
the conditions of the contract in virtue of which the Indians
offered to give a certain amount of land toward the l)uildiiig
of a Catholic church, for their own use, however.
Another thing which causes me much pain. I cannot say
Mass during the week, or rarely so, for lack of the necessary
articles.
But, Monseigneur, I must tell you in all sincerity that
this mission holds out the fairest hopes for the future and
that to abandon it for lack of some little assistance, of some
small sacrifices, would l)e a great loss for religion, a loss all
the greater and more certain now that a Presbyterian minister
arrived in Chicago from some other place a few days ago.^
to himself as viaticum. Sec The story of fiflii years, p. 19.
(Notre Dame Press).
'■' Tills was apparently the Rev. Jeremiah Porter, founder of
tlic first Presbyterian Church of Chicago, who arrived in the
city on -May 1."!. His Journal, which appeared in the Chicago
Times in 1S77, has this reference to Father St. Cyr: "The first
priest residing here was Father St. Cyr witli wliom I had some
friendly interviews in mv studv which I had built near my
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TITK I'ASTOKATK OV FATHl^R ST. CYR, ISoo-lSo-t ^5
Many I'rott'slants, even nl' tlic most ri'spcctalilc ramilics ol'
Chicati'o, would ret mil to llicir lirst, religion, or latlicr woiilil
rciiiaiti in tlicir cn'ors, as hciuL;' willioiil any means of em-
bracing' tlie ("atliolie religion.
J have peri'ornied ei^lil haiilisnis in ('liicaL;o ;iii(l must
p) jo tlie l'\).\ riNcr lo pci't'orm some more.
\ on cannol lielicNc, IMonseiuiieiir, how much i;do(l coiiltl
bo doiu' I'or religion in Ihese \ast prairies were a |>riest li>
visit from time to time the laniilies who are scattered here and
thore. al)andoned ti) themseUcs in evcrythinu' thai concerns
religion and their eternal salvation.
Even tlie Indians, tlie poor Indians, are not indil'l'ereiit
towni'ds our holy religion; they earnestly wish to lia\c a iilack-
robe. 1 lia\e iiiaile tlie ac(|uaintance of tiiree ni' the principal
chiefs, all three Catholics. Two of them in particular, who
remained some <lays in Cliieaii'o, edilied me hy their ureal
faith. r.et'ore sitliiiLi' <lciwn at lalile, whether others were
l)resenl or not, they pi'ayed loi' a space (d' almost ii\e min-
utes, and three limes every day they eanie to my room to say
tlieii' pr.ayers which consisted of a Pater and an Anc. to thank
(iod I'or liavini;' i;i\-eii them lite and the means to sup|iort life
and to pray for their heiu'l adois. 1 showed them a lar^c
crucifi.v and explaine(l to Ihem with the aid (d an inter|H'eler
Avhat our Lord had done and suffered to save us from lie!! and
give us heaven. Tlii'y lemained motionless for a while, with
their eyes lixed on tlie cnicitix, and looking- at it with an air
of ]>iety and compassion, which showed they had a livi'ly
realization i<[' what they saw. Then they broke I he silence
by prayers which they recited ;it the foot (d' Hie crncilix.
boai'dilii; lidiise on tlie |u| mi Ihe cui iier ef i.iikc iiihl l-a Salle
Street, en which llie Marine I'.aiik now stands; a canal let, net
on uuii'ket llien luil \aliicil al almut .$200, and iiuw weilh in tlie
iiei^ldiorlKKiil of .-fii'iii 1,1100. St. Cyr presented me with a little
lioek entitleil, 'A fapisl K'epicsent ed and .\1 isicpresen I ei I , ' which
1 shall ii'laiii as a inenii'iitd el' the infant davs el' our churches.
WiuMl 1 went til s\ni|iathi/e with Mrs. ilainiltdn in the death
of liei- liidthei- I'.iifkiicr. I I'cuind the priest had prcceiled nu'
in at tempt in- te c(jmt'ml the wuman."
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 55
Many Protestants, even of the most respectable families of
Chicago, would return to their first religion, or rather would
remain in their errors, as being without any means of em-
bracing the Catholic religion.
I have performed eight baptisms in Chicago and must
go 'to the Fox river to perform some more.
You cannot believe, Monseigneur, how much good could
be done for religion in these vast prairies were a priest to
visit from time to time the families who are scattered here and
there, abandoned to themselves in everything that concerns
religion and their eternal salvation.
Even the Indians, the poor Indians, are not indifferent
towards our holy religion ; they earnestly wish to have a black-
robe. I have made the acquaintance of three of the principal
chiefs, all three Catholics. Two of them in particular, who
remained some days in Chicago, edified me by their great
faith. Before sitting down at table, whether others were
present or not, they jjrayed for a space of almost five min-
utes, and three times every day they came to my room to say
their prayers which consisted of a Pater and an Ave, to thank
God for having given them life and the means to support life
and to pray for their benefactors. I showed them a large
crucifix and explained to them with the aid of an interpreter
what our Lord had done and suftered to save us from hell and
give us heaven. They remained motionless for a while, with
their eyes fixed on the crucifix, and looking at it with an air
of piety and compassion, which showed they had a livelj"
realization of what they saw. Then they broke the silence
by prayers which they recited at the foot of the crucifix,
boarding house on the lot on the eoruer of Lake and La Salle
Street, on which the Marine Bank now stands; a canal lot, not
on market then but valued at about $200, and now worth in the
neighborhood of $200,000. St. Cyr presented me with a little
book entitled, 'A Papist Represented and Misrepresented,' which
I shall retain as a memento of the infant days of our churches.
When I went to sympathize with Mrs. Hamilton in the death
of her brother Buckner, I found the priest had preceded me
in attempting to comfort the woman. ' '
56 THE CATHOLIC CHTHCH IX CHICAGO
shedding at the same time, torreuts of tears. Xon vidi tontam
fidein in Israel. [I have not seen such great faitli in Israel.]
I could not refrain from weeping with them. They told us
that they prayed to God three times every day, whether jour-
neying or at liome, and that they spent every Sunday singing
praises of Him who died for the whites and poor Indians
alike. What a beautiful harvest, Monseigiieur !"'
On September 26, 1833. tlie Potawatomi, or, as they
were officially designated, the "United Nation of the
Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomie Indians," con-
cluded at Chicago a treaty according to the terms of
which they sold to the government the remnant of their
holdings in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, receiving in
consideration of the same one dollar per acre, and, in
addition, a grant of 5,000,000 acres of land on the left
bank of the ^Missouri Eiver. To this new home, repre-
sented roughly on the map of today l)y the southwestern
counties of the state of Iowa bordering on the Mis-
souri, the Indians agreed to move immediately on the
ratification of the treaty." Father St. Cyr had the
'" The text of the Cliif-ago treaty of 1833 is in Kappler,
Indian Affairs and Tr(ati(s, 2: 402. A discussion of its terms
and tlio circunistiuH-es which attended its signing may be read
in QiAiFE, oi>. cil., ;'>4S-o68, who arraigns severely tlie whole
transaction. To-pe-nc-])C and Pokegan, the two principal chiefs
of the St. Joseph Potawatomi and Wah-pon-seh (Waubansee,
another chief of the Potawatomi of the Woods) went to Wash-
ington in the fall of 1834 to protest against the ratification of
the 1r(>ii1y. Owens to Cass, November 17, 1834. The Files of
the Indian Bureau, Washington, contain a protest from Pokegan,
signed at Pokegan Village, (Michigan) January 25, 1835, against
the ratification of the "deceitful treaty." On the other hand,
the Potawatomi living west of Lake Michigan appear to have
acquiesced fully in the terms of the treaty. ' ' The Prairie and
Lake Indians recognize Caldwell, Robinson and (Joseph) La-
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 57
satisfaction of celebrating Mass for the Catholic Indians
assembled at Chicago on the occasion of this treaty of
1833.
''The last post," Father St. Cyr writes to Bishop Kosati, St. Cyr to
September 16, 1833, "brought me your letter in which were kosati,
enclosed two others, one addressed to Mr. J. B. Beaubien and '^^,„„
the other to Mr. Robert Stuart. I have delivered each one to
its address.^^ Both gentlemen offered very willingly to pay
me the fifty dollars; but I shall receive the money only at the
conclusion of the treaty which began last Saturday and will
fromboise as their principal men, in whom they have unlimited
confidenco and in wliose decision in all matters relating to their
people they fully acquiesce ; and to use their own language,
they wish their great Father, the President, and Secretary of
War to permit no interference with the treaty of Chicago so
far as it relates to the country ceded west of Lake Michigan."
Thomas J. V. Owen, Indian Agent at Chicago, to Lewis Cass,
Secretary of War, November 17, 1834. Files of the Indian
Bureau, Washington. In this same documentary depositary is
the hitherto unpublished official ' ' Journal of the proceedings of
a Treaty between the United States and the United Tribe of
Potawatomies, CMppeways and Ottawas, ' ' a source to be drawn
upon when the history of the Chicago treaty of 1833 is adequately
written up. One passage from the Journal is pertinent here.
" Way-mich-soy-go. When you called us into council at Prairie
du Chien [1829] we were troubled and knew not what to do.
We then appointed these men (pointing out Caldwell and Robin-
son) our chief counsellors. We are one flesh, they have been
raised amongst us. So long as they live, they were chosen to
manage our business. Whatever they say and do we agree to.
They will take time and council together and determine what shall
be done."
" Robert Stuart was agent for the American Fur Company
of Chicago and one of the controlling figures in the affairs of
that powerful concern.
58 THE CATHOLIC CIIT-KCII IN CHICAGO
finish the middle of next niontli. At this treaty a decision will
be reached as to whether we are to get the lands which the
Indian chiefs promised to give towards the support of a
Catholic establishment in their midst. More than 1,000 Indians
are gathered here for the payment. Yesterday I said Holy
Mass four miles from Chicago before a congregation of con-
verted Indians recommended to me by their pastor [Rev.] Mr.
Deseille, who could not accompany them to the treaty, as he
is the only priest at St. Joseph.
Besides the Catholic Indians of St. Joseph, a great many
other Indians from Mackina[w] and Green Bay assisted at
Mass. They had arranged a pretty altar under a tent. Their
modesty, their good behavior during the most Holy Sacrifice
and their respect for priests touched and edified me exceed-
ingly. The Catholics of Chicago, together with those from
St. Joseph who came to attend the treaty, gathered there in
great numbers to hear Mass. The Catholics sang French hymns
at the beginning of the Mass. Then the Indians sang the
Credo in their own language, but to the same air to which
rve sang it, and they sang, besides, a number of beautiful
hymns.
Three carpenters are working at present on my little
chapel. I hope it will be finished by Sunday or at least during
the course of the following week.
1 saw Mr. Menard on Saturday.^- He gave me a letter
for you. So far, I have not received the books you were so
good to send me. I hope to receive them today, as soon as
Mr. Menard's effects shall have arrived here.
Monseigneur Reze spent a little while here on his retui-n
from Green Bav. He gave me ten dollars for mv church and
^- Pierre Menard, Sr., of Kaskaskia, 111., was the first Lieu-
tenant Governor of the State of Illinois and a foremost figure
in the eai'ly political life of the commonwealth. He held the
title at one time to valuable North Side property in Ciiicago
sul)sequently acquired by the Kinzics. For a sketch of Pierre
Menard, Sr., see Moses, Illinois Historical and Statistical, 1: 289;
also, Mason, Early Chicago and Illinois.
an m i^ -^ .^ .^ .^ '- ^*' '^ mMMM-^T'!^'^ <f J 10 J? /? iCt
Mark Boaubieii, l:)iotlier of Jean Baptiste Boauljieii. He came to
Chicago in 1826 from Monroe, Michigan, and was for a time proprietor of
the Sauganash Hotel at Market and Lake Streets, where he gave liospitality
to Father St. Cyr on the latter 's arrival in Chicago in 1833. From a minia-
ture loaned to the Chicago Historical Society by Mrs. Emily Lebeau,
daughter of Mark Beaul)ien.
THE
PUBLIC
PiEW ro: ■: f
C LIBRARY
ASTOK, T I
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 59
ten dollars for mj'self. His visit was extremely short as the
steamboat left the same day it arrived.''^
I received fifteen days ago a letter from Monseigneur
Flaget in which he announces the death of two of his priests
and of four religieuses.
There is no particular sickness except bilious fever, which,
however, has not been dangerous. I had an attack of it myself
for fifteen days.
I buried last week a little child, Avhich I had baptized
only a short time before.
There is no news which might interest you, Monseigneur,
apart from the extraordinary growth of Chicago, which only
a little ago was nothing but a small village. Now there is a
street a mile long [Lake Street] and soon there will be two
others of the same length. But, unfortunately, piety will not
flourish any more on that account.
The mention made by Father St. Cyr in the preced-
ing letter of the Potawatomi treaty of 1833 and of the
Catholic services conducted on that occasion before the
assembled Indians recalls the fact that the Potawatomi
had a direct share in the first formal organization of
the Catholic Church in Chicago. A communication from
Mr. Thomas J. V. Owen, U. S. Indian Agent at Chicago,
to Mr. Anson H. Taylor under date of April 4, 1833,
declared that "at the petition of the principal chiefs of
the Potawatomi tribe of Indians to the President of
the United States, permission was given them to donate
to the Koman Catholic Church four sections of land on
the Desplains or Chicago River near the town of Chi-
cago, for the purpose of establishing a seminary of
" Monsignor Frederick Rose [Rcze] was at this time Bishop-
elect of the newly founded diocese of Detroit. He was con-
secrated in Cincinnati, October 6, 1833, three weeks after his
visit to Chicago. He resigned his episcopal charge in 1837 and
returned to Europe.
GO THE CATHOLIC CHI-RCH IN CHICAGO
learning."" The intention of the Indians to subsidize a
Catholic school or college by a grant of land from their
extensive holdings was, for some unknown cause, never
embodied in the treatj^ of 1833, and on that account
no advantage ever accrued from it to Father St. Cyr
or his successors. Further testimony to the good will
of the Potawatomi to the Catholic Church was the cir-
cumstance already noted that the petition of April,
1833, on the part of the Catholic residents of Chicago
for a resident priest, addressed to Bishop Rosati, was
signed by the two Potawatomi chiefs, Billy Caldwell
and Alexander Robinson and by numerous persons of
mixed French and Indian blood, like the Laframboises
and Chevaliers. iMoreover, it was with the help of
Indian women that Father St. Cyr's church was swept
and put in order in preparation for the first services
and the humble place of worship often echoed to the
hymns which the Indians were taught to sing.^'^
" St. Louis Arelidiocesan Archives. The Shepherd of the
Valley, (St. Louis, Mo.), January, 1834, has the following:
"A letter recently received from Chicago, 111., states that
the Indians near that place have received a large tract of
land for the i)uipose of establishing a Catholic mission among
them, and are only waiting the arrival of a priest to commence
erecting a mission house and chun-li." Governor Porter of
Michigan, one of the three commissioners who negotiated the
treaty of 1833, assured Father Badin that the petition for four
sections of land would meet with success. Badin to Bishop Reze,
October 31, 1833, Files of the Indian Bureau, Washington.
Bishop Reze in October, 1834, was still seeking information re-
garding the fate of the four sections.
'■• Be collections of Augustine D. TaijJor. Historical Scrap-
Book in Library of St. Ignatius College, Ciiicago. The name and
date of the newspaper cannot be identified.
Alison H. Taylor, Ijuilder with his brother Charles H. Taylor
of Chicago's tirst bridge (1832), which was of trestlework and
spanned the river between Lake and Randolph Streets. He had
come to Chicago in 1829. A convert from Episcopalianism, he
journeyed to Saint Louis in the Spring of 1832 to escort Father
St. Cyr to Chicago and the following Summer hauled with his
own team the lumber which his brother, Augustine Deodat Taylor,
used in the construction of the first Saint Mary 's Church. He died
in his seventy-third year at Lakeside, Cook County, Illinois,
May 9, 1878. From a x^hotograph in the possession of his daugh-
ter, Miss Monica Taylor, of Hubbard Woods, Illinois.
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 61
Father St. Cyr said the first Mass in tlie new churcli
in October, 1833, for the Catholic Indians, 300 in num-
ber, who had come to Chicago from South Bend for
their annunities. Work on tlie structure liad been fin-
ished by its builder, Augustine Deodat Taylor, only
the day before and the Indians began at once to sweep
and clean the little place of worship in preparation for
the opening services. The church, however, was still
unplastered, and as there was no prospect of collecting
additional money from the people of Chicago, who had
contributed to the limit of their means in defraying the
initial expense, Father St. Cyr determined to solicit aid
from the Catholics of St. Louis. He wrote, November
23, to Bishop Eosati :
"For over a montli my little chapel has been finished in ^t. Cyr to
a manner decent enough to enable ns to say Mass without in-
convenience every Sunday and week day up to the present.
But the cold wliich is now beginning to make itself felt more
keenly over these vast prairies makes the chapel almost unin-
habitable, for it is still unplastered. The impossibility of say-
ing Mass in it during the winter as also the impossibility of
having it plastered owing to the slender means at present at
our disposal, make it necessary for me to go down to St.
Louis to do a little begging. Thus, together with what the
people here have promised still to give, (though I scarce put
any trust in their pledges), I shall have quite a pleasant
chapel, small though it be. Another motive which induces
me to make a trip to St. Louis is that Thursday next we are
going to open a school in which three languages, French,
English and Latin, are going to be taught. Mr. Kimber [ ?]
Avho is 40 years old, will be in charge; he is a good singer and
speaks English, French and Latin very well, but as we cannot
find here the books needed by the children, I will take ad-
vantage of the journey to secure them.^"
" No mention of a Catholic school in Chicago apart from
02 THE CA'l'TlOLK^ (MirKCII TX CHICAGO
Up to the present, Ave have had Mass and Vespers sung
every Sunday with all the solemnity possibile under the cir-
cumstances. People enter into these services with great ear-
nestness. I have hopes that with the grace of God and the
charity of the faithful and in spite of all difficulties and
miseries, it will be possible to organize a congregation of good
Catholics here in Chicago.
Next Wednesday, if nothing stands in tlie way, I am
going to leave for St. Louis with the firm resolution of return-
ing as soon as possible, so as not to lose time (if such !)(_■ your
wish in the matter, IMonseigneur)."
Father St. Cyr undertook his contemplated journey
to St. Louis. Avhence he returned to Chicago in the late
spring of 1834." Here, however, now that Ave see his
the above occurs in any of Father St. Cyr's letters. It seems
likely that some reforoiipc to so important an adjunct to the
church would liavi' Ix'di iiiailc liv tlio Father in his subsequent
correspondence with las Bishop liad the sehool actually been set
on foot.
The first scliool in Chicago was opened in 1816 by William
Cox, a discharged soldier of Fort Dearborn. The first school con-
ducted along regular lines was taught by Stephen Forbes in June,
1830, in a building owned by one of the Beauliiens, which stood
at what is now the crossing of Ramlolpli Street and ^Michigan
Avenue.
The first Sunday school in Chicago, organized August 10,
18.T2. liv meniliers of the ]\I(>tho(list Episcojial denomination, held
its initial sessions in a small frami> l)uil(ling erected sliortly
l)efore by Mark Beauliien. Axihieas, op. cii., 1: 289.
'' P>isliop Eosal i 's Private Diary (EpJu ni( rUh s Pricatdr) con-
tains the item, "18:'.;], ?,1 Dec. statui D. St. Cyr Sti. Ludovici
retinere toto liienie, ' I Iiave decided to keep Mr. St. Cyr in
St. Louis all winter.' " Father St. Cyr, according to tlie same
Diary, was present at the consecration of tlie cliurch of St. James
in Potosi, Mo., April 27, 18.34.
Church
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 G3
little chapel, as he describes it, thrown open for divine
service, we may retrace our steps a little and gather np
some additional details concerning the erection of Chi-
cago's first Catholic house of worship.
On his first arrival in Chicago Father St. Cyr had st. Mary's
become the guest of Mr. Mark Beaubien, proprietor of
the Sauganash, the best known of the pioneer hotels of
the city. For a year or more he enjoyed gratis the
hospitality of Mr. Beaubien, who from the very first
interested himself in the most direct way in the priest's
plans for a Catholic church in Chicago, discharging in
this connection the duties of chairman of the building
fund. Moreover, it was in a log building about twelve
feet square, situated on the west side of Market Street,
across from the Sauganash and occupied by one of Mr.
Beaubien 's laborers, that Father St. Cyr conducted
services pending the erection of the church.^^ As a site
for the latter, Mr. Jean Baptiste Beaubien, Mark's elder
brother, offered for the nominal sum of two hundred
dollars a lot at the southeast corner of Lake and Dear-
born Streets occupied subsequently by the Tremont
House.^^ The Catholics of Chicago, however, were un-
^* Father St. Cyr's first Mass in Chicago, May 5, 1833, was
celebrated iu the above mentioned house on the west side of
Market Street. The Sauganash stood, not on the southeast corner
of Lake and Market Streets, as it is sometimes stated, but almost
eighty feet to the south on the east side of Market Street.
See Caton, The Last of the Illinois and a Sketch of the Pota-
watomies, 29, in Fergiis Historical Series, 3.
19 1 i rpi^p most historical lot in Chicago undoubtedly is tlie
one occupied by the Tremont House In 1833, Captain
Luther Nichols refused to give Baptiste Beaubien forty cords of
64 TTTF. CATHOTJC niT'nni IN' CHICAGO
al)le to collect this amount, in aildition lo wlinl llicy
had already subscribed for the church, and in conse-
quence Jean Baptiste's offer could not l)e accepted.
The latter shortly afterwards sold this lot to Dr. ^Vil-
liam Egan, who in 1836 disposed of it, so it is said.
for the sum of $60,000. Taking advice of Mr. Beaubien
and Colonel Owens, the Indian agent, Father St. Cyr
now decided to l)uild the chnreh on a canal lot at the
southwest corner of Lake and State streets, the last
named thoroughfare not having been as yet laid out.
The lot adjoined or almost adjoined the military reserv-
ation around which was a fence enclosing a miiuljcr of
acres of cultivated land. It does not appear that Father
St. Cyr purchased this property or acquired any sort
of title to it, though he did obtain a guarantee that no
l)id Avould be admitted higher than the valuation to be
placed on it by the canal commissioners. At all events,
it was on this Lake Street lot, occupied in hiler years
by the printing house of Cameron, Aml)erg & Co.. that
wood for it and wood was then worth $1.25 a cord." Hccollcc-
tions of J. D. Bonnctt, in Andreas, op. cit., 1: 137.
According- lo Kirkland, Story of Chicago, 1: 157, Ihc lot
offorod l)y Col. Beaubien to Father St. Cyr for a church-site was
on tlie north side of Lalte Street between Dearborn and State,
being lot 7 of block IG, in size 80x150 feet. On September 27,
1830, Col. Beaubien Iwuglit, it being the first public sale of lots
held in Chicago, ten lots at an aggregate cost to him of $34(5.
Among them were two lots, one at the northwest, another at the
southeast corner of Lake and Dearborn Street, the first being
the original and the second the later site of the historic Tremont
House. Col. Beaubien 's ten lols bore a valuation in 1853 of
$450,000 and in 1891 of $2,480,000. The story of the financial
reverses of this redoubtable pioneer, Chicago's heaviest tax-payer
in 1825, John Kinzie and Antoinc Ouilmette coming next, is a
chapter of tragic interest in the early history of the city.
THE NEW T^'
PUBLIC 11^^
I-
Augustine Dcoilat Taylor, builder of six of Chicago's pioneer
Catholic Churches, iucludiiio- the four earliest, Saint Mary's, Saint
Patrick's, Saint Peter's, Saint Joseph's. He came to Chicago in
1833, four years later than his brother Anson, and was thereafter
a resident of the city up to his death. From a photograph in the
possession of his niece. Miss :\Ionica Taylor of llulibard Woods,
Illinois.
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 65
the first Catholic church of Chicago was erected under
the name of St. Mary's. On the same lot with the
church stood a house built by a Mr. Dexter Graves, who,
like Father St. Cyr, had l)uilt on the property only
after he had received a guarantee that it would not be
sold at a price in excess of the valuation to be fixed by
the canal commissioners. When eventually the lot came
on the market at the commissioners' appraisement of
$10,000, Mr. Dexter Graves became the purchaser at
that figure, the Catholics of Chicago finding it beyond
their means to raise so considerable a sum.""
-" Letter of Father St. Cyr to Hon. John Wentworth, (His-
corical Scrap-Bool:, St. Ignatius College Library, Chicago). This
letter is the basis of the account in Andreas, op. cit., 1 : 290,
from which the following additional details are cited:
' ' In the meantime, not anticipating the high -^riae at which
the lot would be appraised, they erected thereon a church build-
ing, twenty-five by thirty-five feet in size. The lumber for this
building was brought in a sqow across the lake from St. Joseph,
Mich., a brother of Augustine Deodat Taylor, with his own team,
hauled it from the schooner to the site of the prospective church.
Augustine D. Taylor was the architect and builder. The total
cost of the edifice was about $400, but though small and in-
expensive it was not completed sufficiently for occupying and
dedication until in October. Catholic Indians assisted at the
first Mass celebrated therein. Indian women had cleaned and
prepared the modest building for the celebration of the sacred
rite, and Deacon John Wright, a strong supporter of Eev. Jere-
miah Porter, pastor of the first Presbv'terian church, had, in
August, assisted in raising the frame of the building. At this
dedication service there were present about one hundred persons.
The church itself was not plastered, it had only rough benches
for pews and the simplest of tables for altar and pulpit. The
outside of the building was not painted and it had neither
steeple nor tower. Some time afterwards it was surmounted by
a low, open tower, in which a small bell was hung, being the
G6 THE CATHOLIC CIIT'RCII IX CHICAGO
Shortly after his return to Chicago from St. Louis,
Father St. Cyr Avrotc to l^>isliop Rosati. June 11. 1834:
'"^t.Cyrto "I arrived in Cliicag'o the fifth of this month, (June,
^''*'"'' ,00. 1834) to the ffreat astonishment of the people, who thought
Junell,lS34 ' • . . rn, i i 4.
1 was never g'onig to return. I hoy were pleased to see me
again. Last Sunday we had lligli Mass, the church heing full
of people despite the bad weather, and in the afternoon we
sang' Vespers. A great many Americans assisted at the
services.
I cannot give you the population of Chicago exactly.
The common opinion is that there are two thousand iiihal)-
itants in town and every day you may see vessels and steam-
boats put in here from the lake crowded with families who
come to settle in Chicago. Every day new houses may be
seen going up on all sides. Surgunt moenia Trojae.
In the course of my joui-ney I saw or visited nearly all
the Catholics of Illinois. I performed 13 baptisms and 4
marriages and gave the Catholics of Sugar Creek, Deer Creek,
South Fork and Springfield an ()p])i)rtunity to make their
Easter duty.
Eighteen miles above Peoria I found several Catliolie
• families who so far have not been visited. I could not stop
there but I promised to visit them when I should return from
Chicago. As I learn that [Rev.] Mr. Fitzmaurice is at Galena,
am I to remain in Chicago or is he to take on himself the
duty with which I have been charged, namely, of visiting
Chicago from time to time*?-! I await your orders in this
first bell used in Chicago to call the pious together for religious
worship. It was the size of an ordinary locomotive bell of the
present, and could be heard for only a short distance."
Augustine D. Taylor, biiililcr of the cliurdi. relates in his
T!niniii.sr( vci s, pnl)lished in one of the Chicago dailies, that when
he went I0 collect his liill from Mark Beaubicn, the treasurer of
the building fund, the latter pulled from under his bed a half-
bushel l)asket of shining silver half-dollars, such as the (Jovcni-
nicnt used in paying the Indians their annuities.
■' Father Charles Fitzmaurice, a native of Ireland, joined
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 67
matter; please be so good, Monseigneur, as to let me know as
soon as possible what I am to do."
Bishop Rosati's prompt reply to Father St. Cyr's
inquiry in regard to Galena elicited from the latter a
communication under date of July 2, 1831, in which
he sets forth his views concerning the proper place to
station the missionary who was to attend to the spiritual
needs of the Catholics of Central Illinois.
"I have just received your letter under date of June 20, St. Cyr to
by which I learn that [Rev.] Mr. Fitzmaurice is at Galena and
will remain there definitely. I am greatly pleased with the
news as it relieves me of the considerable uneasiness I should
have felt had I been obliged to visit this place according to
the charge you first gave me.
As to the Catholics whom you tell me about in your letter,
Monseigneur, I am acquainted with them, have met them and
know where they live. Despite all this, I cannot visit them
so long as I remain in Chicago, in view of the fact that they
are 150 miles from where I am stationed and that I cannot
meet the expenses I am obliged to incur in running from place
to place. What is more, my health would allow it less at the
present time than ever.
As to the most centrally located place from which to visit
all the Catholics of Illinois, and I gave the matter particular
attention during my journey from St. Louis to Chicago, it is
in my opinion Springfield, 100 miles from St. Louis and a
little over 200 miles from Chicago. Here is the place I should
pick out for headquarters, as being the most suitable for the
purpose. But you see at the same time that I cannot visit
the Catholics of Illinois on account of the great distance in-
tervening between the settlements and the difficulties to be met
with in traveling over the prairies. Hence, either Chicago
the St. Louis diocese in 1834. He left St. Louis on May 22 of
that year for Galena, to which place he was assigned by Bishop
Rosati in succession to Father McMahon, who had died the year
before. Shepherd of the Valley, May 23, 1834.
68 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
or the Catholics of Illinois are to be neglected or else some
other measui-es must be taken. Now, Monseigneur, it is for
you to decide as you judge best. Only, whether you judge
it proper that I remain in Chicago or leave it, kindly let me
know as soon as i^ossible, because, if I am to remain here at
least some time longer, the people are going to enlai-ge the
church by 24 feet and build a presbytery. It would disappoint
and even discourage them were we now to abandon them after
having put them to so much expense.
We have had 34 [?] pews put in the churcli. some for
four and some for six persons.
Last Sunday, I gave first Communion to four distin-
guished persons, Madame Beaubien, whom I baptized with
one of her children, IVIadame Juneau Solomon [Solomon
Juneau], etc. A large number of Catholics approached the
sacraments.--
The population of Chicago increases daily; the town num-
bers now about 2,400 inhabitants. People here are anxious
to know when the Bishop will be appointed. They would like
to have him in Chicago.
If you judge it expedient that I remain in Chicago until
another priest comes, please tell [Rev.] Mr. Lutz to secure
for me the books which I suggested that he send me at the
first opportunity.
They are books I should find of the greatest utility here,
but I have been without them, as I could not take them with
me when I left St. Louis. I should be gratified to know.
Monseigneur, whether the books of which I gave you a list
that you might have them brought from the Barrens are at
length in St. Louis."
It may be noted in connection with tlie ahove letter
of Father St. Cyr that he had been preceded in his
"Madam Beaubien (Josottc LafraTiiboisc), second wife of
Col. Baptistc Beaulnen, and her son, Alexander Beaubien, were
baptized by Father St. Cyr on June 28, 1833. Madame Juneau
was the wife of Solomon Juneau, the founder of Milwaukee and
first mayor of that city.
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 69
ministry to the Catholics of Sprinprfield and other
localities in Sangamon County, Illinois, by the Jesuit
missionary, Father Charles Van Quickenborne, who
established the Missouri Province of the Society of
Jesus in 1823. Father Van Quickenborne 's baptisms
in Sangamon County, dating as early as 1832, are,
among the earliest, if not the earliest recorded for that
part of the state of Illinois.-''
-' Allusion may here be made to the statement appearing
at intervals in the Catholic press that Father St. Cyr, on occa-
sion of these ministerial visits to the Catholics of Sangamon and
adjoining counties in Illinois, often said Mass in the house of
Thomas Lincoln, father of the future President, Abraham Lin-
coln. The most authoritative version of the statement in question
is furnished by Archbishop Ireland in a letter communicated to
the editor of the American Catholic Historical Bfsearches, 22: 207.
"I happen to be able to furnish a slight contribution to
the discussion by repeating, without peril of mistake, what the
old missionary, Father St. Cyr, was wont actually to say touch-
ing Catholicity in the Lincoln household. Father St. Cyr was a
priest of the diocese of St. Louis, from which in early days the
scattered Catholics of Southern Illinois received ministerial at-
tention. He was a remarkable man, intelligent to a very high
degree, most zealous in work, most holy in life. I knew him
when in later years he was chaplain to the Sisters of St. Joseph,
of Carondelet. He held in vivid recollection the story of the
Church in olden times through Missouri and Illinois. It was a
delight and a means of most valuable information to sit by
and converse with him. In 1866 he spent a month visiting nie
in St. Paul. Here is his statement, as I then took it down in
writing, regarding the Lincoln family. ' I visited several times
the Lincolns in their home in Southern Illinois. The father and
stepmother of Abraham Lincoln both were Catholics. How they
had become Catholics I do not know. They were not well in-
structed in their religion; but they were strong and sincere in
their profession of it. I said Mass repeatedly in their house.
Abraham was not a Catholic; he never had been one, and he
70 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
never led iiic to believe that he would become one At llie time
Abraham was twenty years old or thereabouts, a tall, thin young
fellow, kind and g'ood-natured. lie used to assist me in pre-
paring tlie altar for Mass. Once he made me a present of a half
dozen diairs. He had made those chairs with his own hands,
expressly for me; they were simple in form and fasliion as chairs
used in country places then would bo.' "
Without raising the question of the value to be attached to
the testimony of Father St. Cyr in regard to the alleged Cath-
olicity of tlie Lincoln family, it may here 1)0 stated that
there were certainly Catholic connections of the President's
family settled in Hancock County, Illinois, where tliey were
visited by Father Van Quickcnborne in his missionary rounds
during the early thirties. (The Van Quickenborno baptismal
records for Illinois are in the Archives of St. Mary's College,
St. Mary's, Kansas. See also an important article, "The Lin-
colns of Fountain Green" in the St. Louis Glohe-Democrat,
February it, 1899). One of these Hancock County Lincolns,
Abraham Lincoln by name and a first cousin of the President,
figures in a baptismal entry in Father Van Quickenborne's
records. "But to return to the Fountain Green Lincolns. The
religion of the family was Eoman Catholic. The brothers, Abra-
ham and James, were members of the Catholic church in Ken-
tucky and they are all buried in the old Catholic cemetery a
short distance from the village of Fountain Green, as are other
members of the family." Journal Illinois State Historical So-
cietij, 8: 62. It seems probable that in Father St. Cyr's recol-
lections of later years the Sangamon County Lincolns were con-
founded with the Catholic Lincolns of Hancock County.
^ Tl:
The Rt. Rev. Simon William Galnicl Bnito, first Bisliop of
Vincenncs, in tlic territory of wliich diocese Chicago was inchuled
during tlic period 18:U-1843. Ascetic, litterateur, educator and
tireless worker in the ministry. Bishop Brute is an outstanding
figure of inteiest and charm "in the story of the early develop-
ment of Catiiolicism in the United States. Engraving by J. A.
O'Neill from a cast taken after death. The only portrait of the
prelate known to exist and according to his biographer, Bishop
Bayley of Newark, "a good representation of his features."
CHAPTER III
BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF
CHICAGO
By the Bull, Maximas inter, Gregory XVI erected Diocese of
in 1834 the diocese of Vincemies, comprising the y"*"""""**'
state of Indiana and Illinois east of a line from Fort
Massac along the eastern boundaries of Johnson,
Franklin, Jefferson, Marion, Fayette, Shelb}^ and ]\Iann
Counties, to the Illinois river, eight miles above Ottawa,
and thence to the northern boundary of the State.^
Eastern Illinois and with it Chicago thus fell within the
limits of the new ecclesiastical district and the story of
Catholicism in that rapidly grooving town became for,
a decade a chapter in the history of the diocese of
Vincennes.
The choice of the Bishops of America, ratified by simon
Gregory XVI, for incumbent of the newly erected see, q^^^!^^
fell upon Father Simon William Gabriel . Brute de Brutd
Remur, at the moment professor of theology in ]\It. St.
^ Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States,
3: 640. "It seems to me, and I have answered to that effect,
that my true limits in Illinois being a meridian drawn from
Fort Massac to the Falls of the Illinois river, eight miles above
Ottawa, everything to the West belongs to the diocese of St. Louis,
as the town of Shelbyville, Decatur, Bloomington, Ottawa."
Brute to Rosati. The full text of the decree of Gregory XVI de-
fining the limits of the diocese of Vincennes is translated in the
Illinois Catholic Historical Bevieio, 2: 411.
71
72 THE CATHOLIC ClIT-RCH IX CHICAGO
^Mary's Seiniiiai'v, neai- Kiiiniitsbui'ji;. ^lai'vlaiul. IJorii
at J\('iiiios ill Brittany, March 20, 1779, this singiUarly
typical Breton Catholic passed through the fiery oi-deal
of tlie Fi'cnch Kevolutioii, being eye-witness of iiiaiiy
of the gruesome excesses, Inii-nt forever afterwards into
his memory, that nuirked the ])rogi'ess of the great up-
heaval. From medicine, in whicli he graduated with
the highest honors, he turned to the priesthood, came to
America in 1810, became a member of the Society of
St. Sulpice, and Avas for a period President of the
Sulpician Seminary of St. ]\Iary"s in Ballimoi'c. lOx-
ceptional gifts of mind and heart, a vast range of
learning, ardent personal piety, ascetic haljits of life,
the faith of a Breton peasant, though not of the
peasantry himself, engaging manners and an ex(iuisite
sympathy for others, made Brute an outstanding figure
in every circle in which he moved. His correspondence,
distinguished alike in sentiment and literary form, up-
held the best traditions of the classic letter-writers of
his native land. Friends he made in numbers, among
them figures of the highest distinction in the chureh
circles of the day. ^Mother Seton, foundress of the
American Daughters of Saint Vincent dc Paul, counted
him the most trusted of her spirtual guides. lie knew
intimately the unhappy De Lammenais and attempted,
vainly withal, both in personal visits in Fi-ance and in
letters from the United States to recover that brilliant
ecclesiastic for the Church.
Such was Simon William Gabriel Brute de Renmr,
who saw himself summoned by the Holy See to occui)y
the new See of Vincennes. Bishop England is said to
have expressed in council his serious misgivings as to
the fitness of this very retiring and unworldly figure,
,r ^— \
ASTOR, LEr--^
f if
I It tra^'O
.'(^ijU '.''"'
.'fir '^''*- "^ e'2!tei.
k Zee, iro
y^oii,.<
'o a/if ....
Tlie diocese of Viuceinies at its birth. Oifluiiid pen-and-ink sketeli by
Bishop Brute in a letter addressed to Bishop Rosati, March 2, 18o5. The
congregations under his jurisdiction, so Brute informs his correspondent,
"lie oflf [lit. play] at four corners, 200, 250 miles away from tlie see,
Vincennes." Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives.
BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO 73
this ascetic and man of books, for the rough tasks of a
missionary-bishop; but all doubts his friends may have
entertained as to his fitness for his new duties vanished
when they saw him set himself with amazing energy and
zeal to cultivate the great spiritual waste of Indiana
and Eastern Illinois which Providence had entrusted to
his hands.^
Father Brute was conducting a spiritual retreat for
Mother Seton's Sisters at their Mother-house in Emmits-
burg, Maryland, when the papal bull appointing him
Bishop of Vincennes came into his hands; and he is
said to have opened the document in the chapel and
read it on his knees.^ At the first opportunity he went
into retreat to determine whether to accept or decline
the proffered dignity, drawing up on this occasion, in
very precise and lawyer-like fashion, a memorandum of
- For information coucerninjj this remarkable member of the
Catholic hierarchy in the United States, see Bayley, Memories of
Bishop Brute; R. F. Clarke, Lives of the Deceased Bisliops of
the United States, 2: 7 ; Catholic Encyclopedia, 3 : 24 ; Herber-
mann. The Sulpicians in the United States. Bishop Du Bourg
had already, in 1822, proposed either Brute or Rosati as his
successor in St. Louis in case that city were erected into a new
See. ' ' I have cast my eyes on two men, one French, the other
Italian; the one a Sulpician, who has been in Baltimore for
twelve years and is a man of universal knowledge, of eminent
sanctity, whose zeal was in the past considered excessive, but
which age and experience have toned down to the proper degree;
for the rest, possessing in a high degree the power of making
himself beloved, because his heart is the tenderest and humblest
that I know of, blessed finally with strength proportionate to the
immense labors that he would have to undertake." Du Bourg a
Plessis, Archbishop of Quebec, in Becords of the American Cath-
olic Historical Society, 19 : 192.
^ Bayley, Memories of Bishop Brute, p. 58.
1834
74 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
tlic reasons ))i'() and con. Induonced solely by a ]iit,'li
sense of duly, he made liis choice for aeceplanee and set
out for St. Louis in Septem])er. 1834, to receive conscci'a-
tion. At Bardstown, on the way, he withdrew for some
days into retreat to fortify hini.self by prayer again.st
the grave responsibility he was about to shoulder. And
here Ave find him already anxious over the im])ending
removal from Chicago of Father St. Cyr, whose services
that place had been enjoying only through the courtesy
of the Bishop of St. Louis. From Bardstown where he
met Bishop Flagct he wi'ote October 5 to Bisho]) Kosati :
Brule lo '-It ^\o^}■:i not seem that Mgr. Rezc will be able to come.
Rosaii,^ I regret it exceedingly. He writes nie that you are recalling
Mr. St. (^yr from Chicago on account of his health. May I
find him better and may I recover in St. Louis the services of
this worthy i)riest. Ah! Monseigneur, you will accord me in
my destitution everything you possibly can. I have got abso-
lutely no one for Vineennes on starting out, nor the promise
of anybody later on. I can only say the i^rayer we recite at
the ordination of priests Domine haec adjumenta
largire qui quanta fragiliores sumus tanto his plurihus in-
digemuH. [Grant us, 0 Lord, these helps which we need in
measure proportionate to our weakness.] I tind here only Mr.
Picot, whom everybody tells me to leave here. At the Jesuits'
place, St. Mary's, good Father Chazelles gi'ants me leather
Petit, but only for the moment of installation niul a tew days
after.^ They tell me that Mr. Badin will be al)le to make his
■' 8iunl Aliirv's Colli\u(N near Lelituioii, Maiimi ("duiity, Ken-
tucky was al tills time under tlie maua^cmciit of a colony of
Froncli ,1 ('suits, Fattier Ctiazettes l)emg Superior. Father Louis
Petit, one of tlieir nnnd)ei', who accompanied Brute to Saint Louis
for til? hitter's ("(uisecrat ion. is not to be identified with Father
Louis Benjamin Petit of the secuhir ('lei<;y, the Potawatomi
niissionaiy, who went witli his Indian charges on llnnr forced
journey from Indiana to tlie West in 1838.
BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO (5
resklenee at Fort Wayne. From there up to Logansj^ort there
are, so they say, about 2,000 Irishmen engaged on the work
of opening a canal, whom it would be well to attend to in the
near future. But we shall reserve all these matters for the
conversations we are soon to have." ^
On September 30 Bishop-elect Brute had already
written to Bishop Eosati representing that he might
find it necessary to appeal to "the great, rich and
splendid metroplis of Missouri" for financial help to
enable him to continue his journey to St. Louis
"But I do very wrong to obtrude into matters that
ought to be left to you, good and wise Bishop. I pass
the pen to ^Igr. Flaget and on both knees ask your
blessing. ' ' Bishop Flaget 's post-script runs as follows :
"What modesty, humility, simplicity in these few words Flaget to
written by the new Bishop-elect! It all edifies me and puts ^o««^^'
me to the blush at the same time. For the five daj's I have \gg^
been in the company of this successor of the Apostles, I have
done nothing but admire and bless the Providence which com-
passes mightily its designs by means inexplieible and such as
would be reputed folly in the eyes of wordlings. The figure,
rather odd, of this excellent jjrelate; the ceaseless motions of
his fingers, hands, head and whole body when he speaks; his
■'' Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives. Numerous unpublisliod
letters of Bishop Brute are preserved in various Catholic deposi-
taries throughout the country. His correspondence with Bishop
Eosati comprising 138 letters is in the Saint Louis Archdiocesan
Archives {Saint Louis Catholic Historical Bevietv, 1: 33) and
his correspondence with Judge Gaston is in the Catholic Archives
of America, Notre Dame University. All in all, abundant orig-
inal material is extant for an authoritative tirst-hand biography
of Bishop Brute. With the exception of the letter to Mother
Eose, the Brute letters incorporated in this sketch are here pub-
lished for the iirst time from the French originals in the Saint
Louis Archdiocesan Archives.
76 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
language, English pronounced exactly like French and coming
from a mouth that is almost toothless, all this "would seem
perforce to render him useless for the post assigned him, not
to say laughable and ridiculous. But, mon Bieii, when he
speaks of our Divine Lord, of His love for men, of His con-
tinual spirit of sacrifice, etc., my heart dilates and is aglow
like that of the disciples of Emmaus. I am ])eside myself;
1 ho])e then against all hope and look forward to wonder upon
wonder to be wrouglit by this venerable Apostle.
To give you a slight idea of his i^erfect abandonment to
Divine Providence, in the more than twenty letters which he
has written to Mgr, David and myself on the bishopric of
Vineennes, the number of Catholic missionaries, etc., he has
never said a word about his episcopal revenue or about his
palace, its furniture, etc.; and so, conformably to these prin-
ciples of disinterestedness, he seems to be content as a king,
because, of the one hundred and fifty dollars which he col-
lected in the East, some $G0 or $80 still remain to him now
when he has almost reached his destination. For the love of
God, bring this veritable and more than episcopal poverty to
the notice of the pious and generous souls of St. Louis, so
that they will come to his aid not only by meeting the ex-
penses he will incur by transferring his consecration to Saint
Louis, but by helping him to set up his new household. My
dear Brother, I am a beggar for other people, when in all
conscience I could be a beggar for myself."
From Bardstown Bishop-elect Brute travelled by
stage to Saint Louis in company with Bishop Flagct,
the Nestor of the Catholic hierarchy in the West, then
in his seventy-second year. The two Averc caught in a
violent storm on the prairie and suffered severely from
wet and cold. " L'incomparahle," Brute calls his ven-
erable companion as he pictures him drying his breviary
before the inn-fire.*^ The travellers assisted at the con-
secration of the new Saint Louis Cathedral, which took
" Bayley, 21tmorus of Bisliop Bruti, p. 61.
BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO 77
pMce October 26, 1834. Two days later, on October 28,
followed the consecration of Brute at the hands of
Bishop Flaget, assisted by Bishops Rosati and Purcell.
Nothing weighed more heavily on the spirits of
Bishop Brute in the days immediately preceding his
consecration than the spiritual plight in which Chicago
was left by the recall to Saint Louis of Father St. Cyr.
And yet he was unable to discuss the weighty matter
with Bishop Rosati, so absorbed was the latter in prep-
aration for the consecration of the new house of worship
and in other pressing business. But if he could not
confer with the Saint Louis prelate on the Chicago situ-
ation, he could at least lay the matter before him in a
written memorial.
"The clays are slipping by. You are so busy that I
cannot see you or rather can see you only at times when you
ought to be giving that over-burdened head and heart of
yours some little repose — I write to you instead.
I beg you to reconsider seriously before the Lord the case
of Mr. St. Cyr and grant me him (or else Mr. Koux or Mr.
Loisel or Mr. Dupuy) — but Mr. St. Cyr is already kno>vn and
esteemed in Chicago.'''
In tliis event, (1) I will give him $50 at first and more
later on. (2) I will go ahead of him to Chicago immediately
after my installation to announce him and to pledge the peo-
ple my assistance; and I will return there in the Spring.
I beg you to consider (1) that the Holy Father who es-
tablishes this new diocese, desires that it be encouraged by the
' Father Benedict Roux, fellow-countrpnau and intimate
friend of Father St. Cyr, was at this time resident priest among
the French Catholics settled on the site of Kansas City, Missouri,
whither he was sent by Bishoi? Rosati in November, 1833.
Father Regis Loisel (1805-1845) was the first Saint Louisan
raised to the priesthood. Father E. Dupuy was stationed at "The
Post" in Arkansas.
78 THE CATHOLIC cnrucii ix Chicago
nc'iy-liboring Ijishops. Mgr. Flag'et grants me Messrs. Lalu-
miere, Ferueding and Badin — do you grant me Mr. St. Cyr
for the space of a year, during wliieh I shall endeavor to ob-
tain some other priests.^ (2) Be pleased to recall with what
zeal and with what respect for the priests of Saint Vincent de
Paul and the missionaries of Mgr. Du Bourg, I did all I pos-
sibly could in 1816, the critical date of yours' and Mr. De
Andi'ois's arrival; and in 181!) for his second band of mis-
sionaries.^ No sooner had I consented to accept my ai)point-
ment, than everything failed me at once, — money, priests to
bring along with me, priests already on the ground — Mr. St.
Cyr, Mr. Picot, Mr. Petit, each for some different reason —
money, sisters, everything, and still T am going to be conse-
crated. Oh! do make an effort and write again yourself to
the Archbishop.
If you help to organize this diocese, which you have
together created in council, for the Holy Father could not do
otherwise than second your desire, within a few years this
empty country between yourself and (Mnciimati will be filled
up — those very important points, Chicago and Fort Wayne —
Vincennes will have its Sisters again. Sisters! Ah, j\Ion-
seigneur, I have done so much to secure them for you. For
twentv-five years I have put to use all that I was, all that I
•^FatluM- Simon P. Lalumicro (1804-1857), a native of Vin-
cennes, Indiana, welcomed P.isliop P.iute at his installation in
Xnveml)(M-, 1834. He was a zealous, energetic missionary, identi-
tied with tlie pioneer days of the diocese of Vincennes and died
pastor of Saint Joseph's church, Terro Haute, Indiana. A rough
sketch-map of the Vincennes diocese drawn by Bishop l?rute in
a letter to Bishop Rosati, March 1, 1835, indicates "Mr. Ferncd-
ing's Germans" as located cast of Vincennes towards the Ohio
line. Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives.
"The Right Rev. Louis William Valentine Du Btnirg, Bishop
of Louisiana and the Floridas, was installed in Saint Louis as
his I'athedral city .Tanuary fi, 181S. Among the European recruits
he lM■^u^llt with him to Missouri was a party of Lazarists or
Priests of the Mission, inchuling the saintly Father Felix De
Andrcis and Father Joseph Rosati, the future Bishop of St. Louis.
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^ BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO 79
had ; and now they make me bishop in spite of all reluctance of
mine and against my own personal conviction as to the sphere
of well-doing in which I should have been allowed to remain.
I have laid before you all my weakness. If you had
named a man of talent or enterprise, one made for the place,
you might more readily leave him to himself to create his own
resources.
But with me the case is quite the contrary — even my
exterior is against me, as Mgr. Flaget and yourself realize,
for there is no dissembling the fact. All this calls then for a
more generous effort of zeal in the interests of the diocese to
which you have together summoned me.
Deign then, to pray and deliberate in viscerihus Christi
and under the eyes, as it were, of His Vicar on earth, who, I
am confident, desires only to have his holy enterprise of a new
diocese succeed and above all make a good beginning.
The occasion of the dedication of a church in regard to
which the Divine Goodness has favored you in so admirable
a manner, when, too, every one comes to respond with joyful
efforts to your simple appeal, will be an auspicious one, I
hope, for these simple lines; it is a child and a subject of
St. Louis Avho supplicates and the cause, moreover, is such an
urgent one. Grant, I beseech you, the prayer of
Your very respectful and devoted brother,
SiMOx Brute.
Let me know the answer you return to this memorial on
Chicago."
Below the signature of the memorial Bishop Flaget
wrote, in his cliaraeteristically tremljling script, the fol-
lowing lines :
"In the pitiable and truly deplorable situation in which
our dear confrere finds himself placed through the choice we
have made of him, does not charity, not to say justice even,
require that we render the yoke at least bearable for him at
his entrance into this frightful desert? And to this end, could
you not acquiesce in the petition of IMgr. Brute, which surely
is not extravagant, and influence Mr. Condamine, to whom
80 THE CATHOLIC ("IHKCII IX CHICAGO
you will disclose the very great diHieulties that beset the poor
bishop of Vincennes, to defer for a year his journey to France
aiul remain at his post, thus giving' Mr. St. Cyr a chance
to return to Chicago and stay there during that period ."°
It appears to me that Mr. Condamine, let his generosity and
feeling be ever so slight, cannot fail to enter into your views.
Hisce expositis, fac, dilectifisime amice, (puxl libi jjUicuerit.
[These representations having' been made, do, my vciy dear
friend, just as you please]."
This remarkable joint appeal of the Bishop-eleet of
Vincennes and the Bishop of Bardstown was not with-
out effect. Father St. Cyr was soon dispatched to Chi-
cago with instructions to remain there for another year.
A communication from Bishop Brute to the Cin-
cinnati Catiiolic Telegraph under the pen-name "Vin-
cennes" reveals the satisfaction he felt over the an-ange-
ment thus made.
"From Chicago the Bishop had the pleasing- account of
the return of the Rev. Mr. St. Cyr, ordained and sent by the
Bishop of St. Louis to that most interesting and rajiidly grow-
'" Fatlicv Mattliew Coiiiliiniinc, of Frciu-h l)iitli, was attached
to the Saiut Louis diocese during the period 1831-1837. Bishop
Flaget, it may be noted here, had expressed his satisfaction to
Bishop Rosati over FuUum- St. Cyr's first appoiutmcnt to the
Mission of Chicago, tluii within the limits of the diocese of
Bardstowii. ''I tell you that you did very well to send Mr.
St. Cyr to 'Chicago and if you could send two to the same dis-
trict and even into Indiana, vou would greatly tranquilli/.c the
conscience of the Bishop of Bardstown." Fhigct a Rosati, 17
May, 1833. Saint Louis Arehdiocesan Archives. "The Catholic
Telegraph published frequently a Vincennes letter fi-om ]iishop
Brute, the 'French-English' of which Bishop Purcell 'amended'
as Mother Seton had done in earlier days." Sister Mary Agnes
McCann, Archbishop Purcell and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati,
p. 22.
BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO 81
ing town, the southern port of Lake Michigan, with which a
canal will soon connect the Illinois river. He had been re-
called to his own diocese, when Chicago with a part of the
State of Illinois was attached to that of Vincennes. Our
Bishop obtained his return before he left St. Louis after his
consecration. A house built on the lot of the church during
the absence of Mr. St. Cyr was with kind attention prepared
for him. Soon that most promising i^oint may receive Sisters ;
perhaps have a large college, for in scarcely three years the
town has advanced from a few scattered houses to the aston-
ishing progress of about three thousand souls. Who can tell
how much of improvement a few years more may enact for
such a place. ^^ "
" Cincinnati Catholic Telegra'pli, January 16, 1835. At the
time of Bishop Brute's consecration, there were only three priests
in the entire diocese of Vincennes. ' ' Mr. Lalumiere took charge of
the Missions in the vicmity of Vincennes, but still 25 or 30 miles
distant, and in the whole diocese there were but two other
Priests, one Mr. Ferneding, in charge of the German missions
150 miles distant, and Mr. St. Cyr, whom Bishop Rosati had
permitted to assist me for one year and who was stationed in
Chicago, 225 miles off." Bayley, op. cit., 63.
CIIAPTHR IV
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837
The. winter of 1834-1835, the first which Father
St. Cyr s])ent in Chicago, was a mild one, as winters
in that hx-ality nsnally went. But for one reared in
the softer climate of southern France, it was trying
enough as the Father intimates to Bisliop Rosati :
"I avail myself of the occasion otfcred throu<;ii Mr.
Boilvin who leaves today [January 12, 1835] for St. Louis
to let you hear from me. Up to the present my health has
been sufiReiently good not to prevent me from attending to my
duties, though I often experience pains through my whole
body, causing me at times not a little suffering. These pains
have become more acute, since flic cold weather began to
moderate a little.
The winter is very mild this year and if we are to believe
the old Canadian residents, it is no winter at all. To give
you a more correct idea of it, we have only 2 [1] inches of
ice and tliere lias been skating on all the rivers for more than
a month; and still they launch bitter complaints heavenwaid
because the ice is not strong enough. Judge from this what a
winter here must be when there is one.
Labor improbus omnia vincit. Our little chapel is lin-
ished at last, but not without many difiiculties and annoy-
ances occasioned by the mild winter of the Canadians. We
have been ol)liged to keep up a lire constantly day and nigiit
tt) prevent the plaster from freezing, and this for more than
tln-ee weeks. Only at the end of this time were we able to
say Mass, but since then we have had Mass and Vespers sung
everv Sumhiv, sonu'times to music though tliat is not always
82
Saint Mary's, the first Catholic Church in Chicago, erected in
1833 by Father St. Cyr on the south side of Lake Street near
State, Augustine D. Taylor ])eing architect and builder. The
photograph shows it as it stood in its third and last location,
on the south side of Madison Street between Wabash Avenue and
State Street. Both Cathedral and the first Saint Mary's Church
were swept away in the conflagration of 1871.
PUBLIC LIBRAE »
• THE PxVSTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 83
very harmonious. However, they do not fail to make a noise
and this is what is looked for here. But it must be observed
that if there is discord in our music, it is owing not precisely
to any fault or bad will on the part of the musicians but to
their lack of instruments. I wrote lately to Cincinnati for
song-books.
I will also state that though I speak English very poorly,
the Americans do not fail to come in crowds to our church
every Sunday, and if it is finished, it is partly to their gen-
erosity that I owe it.
You see from this, Monseigneur, that our little church is
far from being put up for sale, as our miracle-worker said
on board the steam-boat Michigan (I mean the Presbyterian
minister of this town). If there is any church that will keep
on growing, it is the Catholic church, though it be small in the
beginning, as is only natural. And Jeremiah Porter, Avho
boldly takes the name of jiastor in a circular to the editor of
the St. Louis Observer, deceives himself grossly in taking the
name of pastor of a congregation of 60 or 80 members, as
lie did on board the steam-boat Michigan, when he mistook a
piece of ice for a wafer !" ^
The spring of 1835 found Bishop Brute in Chicago
in the course of a canonical visitation of his diocese. An
account of the visit was communicated by the Bishop to
the Catholic Telegrapli of Cincinnati.
"Chicago, 7th of May. Of this place the growth has Ijeen
surprising, even in the West, a wonder amidst its wonders.
^ The incident referred to occurred on Ijoard a Lake Michi-
gan steamer on which the Eev. Jeremiah Porter, the first Pres-
byterian minister in Chicago, was a passenger. A young Catholic
by name of Thomas Watkins, also a passenger on the same
steamer, gave some ice to two cholera patients on board in ac-
cordance with directions given him by the ship's doctor. The
minister, who observed the action, concluded somehow that the
young man had administered the Eucharist to them. A letter of
"Watkins in explanation of the affair appeared in tlie St. Louis
Shepherd of the Valley, November 15, 1834.
84 TIIK CATHOLIC CIUKCII IN CHICAGO
From a i'ow scattered houses near the fort it is become, in two
or three years, a place of great promise. Its settlers san-
guinoly hope to see it rank as the Cincinnati of the Xorth.
Here the Catholics have a neat little church. Americans, Irish,
French and Germans meet at a common altar, assembled irom
tlie most distant parts of this vast republic or come from the
shores of Europe to tliose of our lakes. Rev. Mr. St. Cyr is
their pastor. They have already their choir supported by some
of the musicians of the garrison. Many of the officers and a
number of the most respectal)le Protestants attend. The
Bishop on his arrival in the diocese had been invited by the
Protestants as well as the Catholics of this place to fix his resi-
dence among them and felt his gratitude revived by the kind
reception lie now received. During his stay he preached three
times in English and on Sunday morning administered the
sacrament of Confirmation. On the same day Doctor Chase,
the late Protestant Bishop of Ohio, preached in the Presby-
terian church of Chicago. The environs of Chicago do not
appear as favorable for agriculture as the situation of the
town is for commerce; but time and industry may do much
for their im]irovoment." -
We have seen that Bishop Brute, at the time of his
eonseeration in 8t. Louis, had arranged with Bishop
Rosati to have Father St. Cyr remain in charge of the
Catholics of Chicago for at least a year longer. But
Father St. Cyr was uncertain what his status would be
when this period had run its couv.se. He Avrote to
Bishop Kosati, August 3, 1S35 :
'"^t. Cyr to ..J i,.j^.g ju^i received a letter from Monseioneur Brute
Jfosati, 1 ■ ■ X' I • 1
Anoiists, '^dvismg me of his departure for France. According to this
- Catholic TcJf graph, August 7, 18."]5. ''At Chicago I luul
only four to confinii and was unable to enlarge tlie cluirch, the
title to the property being uncertain." Bi-ute a Rosati, May
24, 183.5. Bishop Brute estimated the Catholic population of
Chicago at this period at about four hundred souls. Bayley,
Ml moriis of Bis]iop Brute, 69.
lS3o
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 85
letter it appears that I am definitely attached to his diocese
or at least am to spend the winter in Chicago; but he makes
no mention of any new arrangement with you. However,
should you have made any contract with him in virtue of
which I am attached to his diocese for good or for some
longer period than the twelve-month of which there was ques-
tion last year, please have the goodness, Monseigneur, to advise
me to this effect as soon as possible, that I may know on
whom I am to depend for orders and that I may take meas-
ures against the severity of the winter.
I am very anxious to renew my holy oils — my cases are
almost dry. Should you find occasion to send me a supply,
I shall be a thousand times obliged to you.
The town of Chicago is growing rapidly. Immigration
was so considerable for a space of almost three weeks that
there is fear of a famine. A barrel of flour has sold as high
as twenty dollars.
Many Catholic families have arrived in Chicago. There
is no sickness here, thanks be to God. I learned that the
cholera paid you a visit and carried oft' a number of persons.
I asked good [Kev.] Mr. Lutz quite a while ago for
some Mass intentions.^ He seems to have forgotten me en-
tirely, and yet I tliink very often of him. If I am to spend
the winter here I intend to take a trip to St. Louis before
the end of fall, Beo adjuvante — but all this, Monseigneur,
depends on the answer you will send me."
Bishop Kosati's answer to Father St. Cyr was to
the effect that he should remain at his post in Chicago
until the return of Bishop Brute from Europe, in which
decision Father St. Cyr readily acquiesced.
^ Father Joseph Lutz, born at Odenheim in Germany, did
missionary work among the Kansa Indians in 1828 and was sub-
sequently assistant pastor at the Cathedral of St. Louis and pas-
tor of St. Patrick's Church in that city. An excellent sketch of
him from first-hand sources by Rev. Francis Holweck was pub-
lished in the St. Louis Pastoral-Blatt, October, 1917.
8G THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
"Since it is your wish and desire tluit I remain in
Cliifa.<i-o until tlie return of Monseigneur Brute, this is my
wish also and lor as long a time as it will be yours. Kindly
send nic an Ordo as soon as they are printed. I will even
make hold to ask you for u half dozen copies of the Pious
Guide. Jf you could tind occasion to forward them to me.
I shall say Masses ccording to ynui- intcutinns to dcfiay
the expense.
Should [Kev.] Mr. Lutz have a German grannnar to
disjjose of in my favor I shall be infinitely obliged to him.
Mr. Zender, whom you knew at the Barrens, has been
here for some days.* He styles himself "doctor and phrenol-
ogist distributing Phrenological diplomas, etc." It is probable
tliat he \\ill shortly honor you with a visit.
There is nothing of particular note or interest here for
the jiresent. Chicago grows larger every day in an amazing
manm'r. Land round Chicago is extravagantly high. Mr.
Laframboise's house was reduced to ashes last week and it
was only with great troul)le that they saved Mr. I'oilvin's
wliich adjoined it.'^ "
Though Father Ht. Cyr was in Chicago in September,
1835, at the time of the departure of the Potawatomi
Indians of Northwestern Illinois for their new home
along the ]\Iissouri River, no mention of the incident
is to be met with in his correspondence.^ And vet, with
the migration westward of these Indians he lost a num-
ber of his parishioners, mixed-bloods like the Lafram-
boises, Ouilinettes, and Chevaliers, who had been identi-
fied with St. Marv's clnirch from the day that the
'The Seminary of the Lazarists, known as the "Barrens,"
was cstaljlislied near Perryvillc, Perry County, Missouri, in 1818.
° St. Cyr a Rosati, November 2, 1835.
"Father St. Cyr's letter of September 5, 1S3G, to Bishop
Kosati <-()ntains a reference to a Potawatomi migration occurring
at that period, very lik(>ly the one under Mr. Kereheval 's manage-
ment. Sec infra, p. 91.
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 87
Catholics of Chicago sent their historic petition to the
Bishop of St. Louis. The withdrawal of the Indians
from Chicago was marked by circumstances of a
dramatic character. Possil)ly ^^dth a view to make a
final display of their strength on ground that had been
the scene of many of their past triumphs, they marched,
one hot day in August, 1835, in procession through the
streets of Chicago. Hideously j^ainted and clad in scanty
raiment, they started from their rendezvous on the
North Side, crossed to the West vSide on an old bridge
over the North Branch, then crossed the ^Yest Branch
on Anson's Tayor's bridge near Randolph Street and
with fierce war-whoops and savage dancing proceeded
along Lake Street to Fort Dearborn. From one of the
upper windows of Mark Beaubien's hotel, the Sauga-
nash. Dean Caton Avatehed this final demonstration of
Indian tribal spirit in the streets of Chicago, after-
wards putting on record the emotions of mingled fas-
cination and alarm which the spectacle awakened in
those who witnessed it.'
The emigration of the Potawatomi to the "West took
place in September. 1835, under the management of
Colonel Russell. ^Moving across Illinois they took a
southwest wardly route through Iowa and thus reached
the triangular strip of land then claimed by the Sacs
and Foxes and later known as the Platte Purchase.®
Here they tarried for almost two years, not moving up
into the lands guaranteed to them l)y the treaty of 1833
until the middle of 1837. While still occupying the
Platte Purchase, they were visited from the Kickapoo
■ Catox, The Last of tlie Illinois and a SJcetch of the Pota-
watomies in Fergus Historical Series, 3.
^Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri [Conard] 5: 152;
Babbitt, Early Days at Council Bluffs, 25, 26.
88 THE CATHOLIC CHUHCH IX CHICAGO
^Mission by Father Charles Felix Van Quickenbonie,
founder of the ^lissouri Province of the Society of
Jesus, who. on January 29, 1837, baptized fourteen
Indian children in the l*otawatomi camp opposite Fort
Leavcnwoi'th. The first of the number baptized,
Susanne, the six-month old dau^diter of Claude Lafram-
boise and a Potawatomi woman, had AVilliam or as he
was familiarly known in Chicajjo. "Billy" Caldwell, for
godfather, w^ho also stood sponsoi" for two more of the
children. Other sponsors on this occasion were Claude
Laframboise, Toussaint Chevalier, Joseph Chevalier,
Francis Bourbonet [Bourbonnois] and Michael Arcoit.
Father Van Quiekenbornc was in fact dealing "\^^th a
group of ex-residents of Chicago or its vicinity, some
of w^hose names had appeared on the poll-book of the
election of 1826, the first in the history of the city.'*
During their occupancy of the Council Bluffs
reservation (1837-1848) the Potawatomi were minis-
tered to for a while by the Jesuits of ^Missouri, w'ho
opened St. Joseph's Mission at Council Bluft's in re-
sponse to a petition from the Indians signed at Fountain
Blue on the ^Missouri River, September 12, 1837, by
AVa-bon-su [Wa-pon-seh, AVaubansee] and fourteen of
his fellow tribesmen.^°
The familiar names of the Chicago half-breed Pota-
watomi recur in the baptismal and marriage records of
the Mission. ^^ On August 15, 1838, Father Peter De
" The Kiclapoo Mission Bdiitisnidl licf/istcr rests in the ar-
cliivos of St. Mary's College, St. Mary's, Kansas.
'" Files of the Indian Bureau, "Washington.
"These records are in the archives of St. Mary's College, St.
Mary's, Kansas. At Council Bluffs the Jesuit missionary. Father
De Smet, made the acquaintance of Billy Caldwell, to -vvhoni he
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 89
Smet, the noted Indian missionary, performed two mar-
riage ceremonies at Council Bluffs, the first recorded
in the history of the place. The contracting parties
were Pierre Chevalier and Kwi-wa-te-no-kwe and Louis
M'ilmot [Ouilmette] and Marie AVa-wiet-mo-kwe. Janu-
ary 2, 1839, the same priest married William Caldwell
to Susanne Misnakwe. That chief again appears as god-
father, this time to John Naakeze, baptized at the age
approximately of 102 years by Father De Smet, De-
cember 29, 1838. In 1848 the Council Bluffs Potawa-
tomi were united with the Osage River branch of the
tribe on a common reservation along the Kaw River in
what is now the State of Kansas. Here they came under
the spiritual care of the Jesuits of St. Mary's Mission.
The baptismal, marriage and burial registers of that
Mission frequently record the names of Beaubiens,
Ouilmettes, Laframboises and other former Potawatomi
mixed-bloods of Chicago and its vicinity. It is an in-
teresting reflection that the Society of Jesus which gave
Chicago its first priest in the person of Father Mar-
quette and its first resident pastor in the person of
the Miami missionary. Father Pinet, found itself for
years the spiritual guardian of the Potawatomi Indians,
the immediate predecessors of the whites in the occupa-
tion of the Chicago terrain and a picturesque factor in
the pioneer social life of the future metropolis.
In the summer of 1836 Bishop Brute returned from
his recruiting journey to Europe bringing with him a
thus refers in a letter: ''Mr. C[aldwell] though far advanced
in years seems to be a very worthy, honest man: he is well dis-
posed towards us The chief [Caldwell] has given us pos-
session of three cabins." Chittenden and RiciiAnDSON 's De
Smet, 1: 157.
90 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
number of French priests -wiiose services he had secured
for his diocese. Of the number Avere Fathers Celestine
de la Hailandiere and .Maurice de St. Palais, successors
of Bishop Brute in the sec of Vincennes. In the arrival
of these clerical reinforcements Father St. Cyr saw an
opportunity to be relieved of his chities in Chicago and
return to the St. Louis diocese.
He wrote to Bishop Rosati July 15, 1836 :
"I received a letter from Mons. Brute a few clays ago
in which he gives me to understand that he will be at
Vincennes towards the end of July. I beg you therefore,
Monseigneur, to recall me to your diocese, as soon as he
returns, or rather do you arrange the matter definitely with
him; for I cannot remain any more as I am, deprived of
everything, even of the succors of my religion, and not
knowing to whom to have recourse in cases of necessity.''
In September, Father Bernard Schaeffer, a native
of Strassl)urg in Alsace, one of Bishop Brute's clerical
recruits, was in Chicago zealously co-operating in the
ministry with Father St. Cyr, as we learn from a com-
munication of the latter to Bishop Rosati under date
of September 5, 1836:
"To judge from your letter, it seems to be your wish
that I remain in Chicago until Monseigneur Brute hiis anotlier
priest to replace me. Nothing seems to me to be more reason-
able ; at the same time I do not promise to remain at Chicago
another year longer or even to spend the winter there in the
situation in which I find myself at present. Be that as it
nuiy, the alfairs of the church of Chicago are in such state
tliat they allow of no further delay; they constrain me as a
consecjuence to make a tiip to St. Louis and from there to
Vincennes to confer about I hem with jNIonseigneur Brute. I
leave the congregation until my return to the zealons care of
Mr. Schaef(:er, a German priest, who has been here with me
for some weeks and is destined for Chicago.
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 91
I am bringing two sons of Mr. Deodat Taj'lor along
■with me to the college of St. Louis; I hope to leave at the
end of this week.^-
I have said five Masses for the repose of the soul of
Mr. Condamine. His death has greatly distressed me. All
the Indians are here at Chicago. They are receiving their
fmal pa^'ment and are going to journey towards the Mis-
sissippi. Veteres migrate coloni et clulcia linquimus arva.^^
1 long to see you, Monseigneur, as well as Messrs. Lutz and
Louis de Fontbonne."
In January, 1837, Father St. Cyr conveyed to Bishop
Rosati the surprising intelligence that the Catholics of
Chicago were unable to support two resident priests :
"I am writing you this letter to inform you of a situation
which may api^ear to you to be somewhat strange; be this
as it may, I hasten to make it known to you so as to have
a decision from you in answer to this letter as soon as
possible and thus know what I am to do under the circum-
stances.
It is impossible for two priests to live here in Chicago
without running into debt. Everything is extraordinarily
dear, w^iile the majority of Catholics are poor and without
means to suiDport their families. Hotel rates run from $15
to $20 a month. I have myself up to the present time been
paying $10 a month; and yet this appears to be a favor
towards me from Mr. Medard Beaubien, with whom I have
been boarding for more than a year, and to w^hom I owe a
thousand sentiments of gratitude for all the kindnesses which
he together with his wife have ever shown in my regard.^"*
" Anson and Deodat, sons of Deodat Taylor of Chicago, were
entered in the Mercantile Department of Saint Louis University
in October, 1836. Deodat (Adeodatus) was baptized by Bishop
Rosati in the University Chapel, January 14, 1838.
" See supra, p. 86. The Latin which follows is a combination
of disconnected lines from Virgil, to be translated, "migrate, old
settlers, and, we leave behind these pleasant fields."
" Medard or Madore Beaubien, son of Col. J. B. Beaubien,
92 THE CATHOLIC CIirKCII IX CHICAGO
But for several reasons I shall be obliged to go and board
elsewhere until ray departure. This puts me in the way of
iiicuniiiK debts, while the Catholics, having learned that I
am to quit Chicago, make a difficulty about contributing to
the support of the priest. The result is that the uncertainty
regarding the length of my stay in Chicago has been to me
a constant source of trouble and anxiety, and the reason
why I have so often lacked the most necessary things.
.Mr. Schaeffer fuids himself almost in the same situation
as myself. He declared to me positively yesterday evening
that, in view of the circumstances, one of us two ought
absolutely to go and start another parish either on the
canal or some place else, a thing impossible just now seeing
that we have only a single chalice and a single missal. i'' I
followed his Potawatomi relatives to the Kaw River R(>servc. He
gave the land on wliieli the town of Silver Lake, in Shawnee
County, was laid out, and was three times mayor of the town.
Silver Lake is twelve miles east of St. Mary's, one-time site of
the well-known Catholic Potawatomi Mission. Madore, Beaubien
and Theresa Streets in Silver Lake, the last named for Madore 's
wife, preserve the memory of this one-time influential citizen of
Chicago. Sec Emma Cowes Richerter, A History of Silver Lalce,
Kansas, p. 5. Medard Beaubien had "tlie reputation of ])eing
tlie handsomest man that was ever in this city He gave
as reason for abandoning Chicago, where lie was a merchant, that
lie would rather be a big Indian than a little white man." — Hon.
John Wentworth in the Chicago Times, May 8, 1876.
^'^ The construction of the Michigan and Hlinois Canal was
authorized in 1835 by a bill of the Illinois State Legislature.
The project was meant to provide a Lakes-to-the-Gulf waterway
by connecting Lake Michigan and tlie Chicago River witli tlie
Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. ' ' The contractors who had tlie
work in hand, sent circulars to all the seaports of the United
States and the Canadas, which were distril)uted among the emi-
grants, wlio wcie at this time coming in multitudes to America.
Tliousands started westward to find ready work and it is a
noticeable fact that the majority were from Ireland, as the tide
of emigration from the Green Isle to America set in at tliis
time." McGovERN, The Catholic Church in Chicago, p. 14.
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 93
told him tliereupon that I would write to you and do every-
thing I possibly could to hasten my departure, already desired
so long a while back and yet repeatedly delayed or put off.
I shall leave with all the more pleasure that Mr. Sehaeffer
can now preach in English and hear confessions much better
than I could the first time I came to Chicago.
I beg you, Monseigneur, to take this matter under con-
sideration. I beg you also to tell me, if it be possible, what
will be the location of my second mission so I can have the
newspapers I receive at Chicago sent to that address ; tell
me too, what English books from my library, such as I can
easily procure for myself elsewhere, I may leave with Mr.
Sehaeffer, who has almost no books at all.
I am going to write directly on this matter to Monseigneur
Brute, as wdl also Mr. Sehaeffer. We have not yet received
the Ordo. I do not know whether it is to you, Monseigneur,
that I ought to apply for it or to Monseigneur Brute. If you
could send me a copy, I will discharge Mass intentions, as
far as will be necessary."
The representations made by Father St. Cyr in the
preceding letter were not without effect. He was at last
definitely recalled to the diocese of St. Louis, as he in-
timates in a communication to Bishop Rosati, ]\Iarch 4,
1837:
"I received your letter of rel)ruary 23 today. I hasten
to answer it and to let you know that I shall do every thing
in my power to follow out your orders despite great difficulties
in the way. If I cannot go on to St. Louis before Holy Week
as you desire me to do, it will not be through any lack of
good will on my part, but because circumstances will not
allow it.
It is with considerable pain, Monseigneur, that I see
myself forced to sell a portion of my books to pay part of
my travelling expenses, and even so, I shall be obliged to
borrow money, but from whom I do not know.
When I went to Vincennes, I did everything in my power
to get a chalice and missal for Mr. Sehaeffer. But all my
9-1: THE CATHOLIC CIirHCII IX CHICAGO
efforts were in vain, so that you will not take it amiss, ]\Ion-
soii;ueui-, if I leave the chalice and missal witli Mr. Scliacfl'er.
He will return them as soon as he can procure others in their
place. Sacrifice on sacrifice."
Two weeks later Father St. Cyr ayaiii achlresst'd
Bishop Rosati, declaring in emphatic terms his willing-
ness to remain in Chicago should the Bishop judge tliat
the good of souls demanded this arrangement.
St. Cyr to .ij; f^pi certain that you received my letter, which was
f/*"*^',oo. an answer to vour own of Februarv 23, and which notified
March, lS"t ■ . , , • Oi t ■ i- u i a\' i-
you that you might expect me m iSt. Louis lor xioly \\ eeK,
if nothing untoward occurred. However, in spite of my good
intentions, I have been unable to realize my own wishes or
to comply v.ith yours. The news of my departure coming at
the very moment when a large number were making ready to
fulfill their religious duties fell like a thunderstroke on the
whole congregation, many of whom wnll be unable to receive
the sacraments supposing that I leave next week as I had
intended to do in order to be able to reach St. Louis by
Holy Week. Hence, Monseigneur, to avoid inconvenience and
quiet the people a little I have tliought it my duty to defer
my departure until after Easter Sunday. I have heard some
talk of a petition which they have sent you to prevail upon
you to leave me in Chicago.
As to myself, Monseigneur, my whole desire is to do the
holy will of God, to go and remain where e\-er the glory of
God and the salvation of souls should call lue through the
voice of my superiors, firmly persuaded as 1 am that nihil mi hi
deerit in loco pasciiae ubi me collocavit [nothing will be
wanting to me in the place of pasture where He hath set
me]. If then, Monseigneur, you think it God's holy will that I
establish myself definitely in Cliicago or its neigliborhood. say
so boldly, and despite the difficulties that start up on every
side, I am ready to obey and submit my will to yours, to
embrace with my whole heart this mission of Chicago and
share with my worthy confrere, :\[r. Schaeffer, its hardships
and merits.
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 95
If, on the other hand, you think it God's will that I return
to your diocese, then, cost what it may, I will tear myself
away from the midst of my flock and away from my first-
born, I will obey and go whithersoever I am sent in the
firm conviction that vir obediens loquetur victorias [the
obedient man will speak of victories].
For the rest I will leave everything to your decision ;
what you tell me to do, I will do.
Mr. Schaeffer is just now indisposed as a consequence
of an attack of headache which he experiences almost regu-
larly every month and which torments him severely for the
space of forty-eight hours.
Yesterday the outskirts of Chicago and Chicago itself
were entirely covered with ice and snow. Today everything
is flooded for at this moment the rain is coming down in
torrents. The roads and streets of Chicago are impassible.''
The news that Father St. Cyr had been recalled to Pennon of
„ r( T • ' Chicago
his own diocese oi bt. Louis came as a shock to the catJwUcs
Catholics of Chicago. Eager to retain the services of
this zealous priest, they addressed a memorial on the
subject to Bishop Rosati. It is a noteworthy testimony
to the esteem in which Father St. Cyr was held by his
Chicago parishioners, and deserves to be here reproduced
in extenso :
"To the Rt. Revd. Doctor Rosati, St. Louis:
"The undersigned Roman Catholic inhabitants of the
town of Chicago have heard with the deepest regret that
you have recalled the Revd. Mr. St. Cyr from this Mission
and as such an event would in their opinion be productive of
injurious consequences to the cause of Catholic truth in this
l^lace, they humbly beg leave to call your attention to the
actual situation of our people in this Mission and request
that you will carefully consider all the circumstances previous
to such removal.
They would in the first place inform your Grace that
the Revd. Mr. St. Cyr by his exemplary conduct, great zeal
9G THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
in the cause of religion and incessant perseverance has en-
deared himself to everj' member of our congregation and is
highly esteemed by the members of other denominations, and
having acquired a sufficient knowledge of the English language
to enable him to preach and instruct with fluency and elo-
([uence, they conceive that his removal would l)e a subject of
bereavement to the whole congregation.
That his associate Rev. Mr. Sehaeffer although e(|ually
distinguished for piety and zeal has but an impei'fect knowl-
edge of the English language and is consequently unfitted for
discharging the spiritual duties of a pastor among an English
population.
That we have in this town two thousand and perhaps
more Catholics as there are a large number of Catholic
families in the adjacent country particularly on the line of
the Chicago and Illinois canal, the great body of labourers
on w'hieh are Catholics, to all of whom the clergy here must
render spiritual assistance. The attention therefore of a
clergyman speaking the English language will be indispens-
ably necessary and they would humbly represent that nothing
but tlie most urgent necessity should induce the removal of a
man from such a vast field of lal^or who is so beloved and
revei'ed by his congregation.
That as our church is totally inadetjuate to contain the
fourth part of the attending congregation, we have taken
the preliminary steps to erect a new chapel capable of ac-
commodating our large and increasing society. The removal
of the Kevd. Mr, St. Cyr will operate to retard and delay
the work so much desired not only by Catholics but l)y various
members of other denominations.
That as this is the most impditant place in tlie State, as
the population is so rapidly increasing that we can in a few
years justly expect a Catholic population of several thousand
and as one clergyman cannot possibly discharge the duties
annexed to it, good policy as well as duty require that we
should have clergymen stationed here capable by their example
of inspiring respect, by their talents of dissipating ignorance
and prejudice and by their zeal and perseverance of building
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 97
up in this new region the imperishable monuments of our
holy religion.
"We therefore huml)ly entreat your Grace not to deprive
us of a dearly beloved i^astor at the commencement of his
usefulness, but to leave him where his zeal and virtues are
so well appreciated and so likely to respond to the best in-
terests of the church. ^"^ "
The efforts of the Catholics of Chicago to retain the
services of Father St. Cyr were not successful. He
left Chicago for St. Louis, April 17, 1837, and in the
following June was assigned by Bishop Rosati to the
mission of Quincy, Illinois, from which place he made
periodical excursions to the Catholics of the neighboring
counties.^"
^^ St. Louis Archdiocesan Archives.
" Father St. Cyr 's baptismal, marriage and burial records,
all contained in one register now resting in the parish archives
of St. Mary's Church, Chicago, afford authentic information of
his ministerial activities during his stay in Chicago. On May 22,
1833, he baptized George, son of Mark Beaubien and Monique
Nadeau. This, as far as can be ascertained, is the tirst adminis-
tration of the sacrament in Chicago attested by documentary evi-
dence. Among the baptisms subsequently conferred by Father
St. Cyr in Chicago were the following:
June 5, 1833, Caroline, daughter of Jean Baptiste Beaubien
and Josette Laframboise. Godparents: John Whistler and
Esther Bailly.
June 5, 1833, Marguerite, daughter of Solomon Juneau and
Josette Vieau. (Solomon Juneau was the founder of Milwaukee.)
June 17, 1833, Francis, son of Francis Bourbonnois and Ho-
setta Asham of Ottaway (Ottawa).
August 30, 1833, Francois, son of Joseph Laframboise and
Jacquet Peltier. Godparents: Mark Beaubien and Josette La-
framboise.
June 28, 1834, Joseph, sou of John Welsh and Marie Louise
Wimette. (This is the tirst person of Irish extraction whose
baptism is recorded in Chicago.) Marie Wimette (Ouilmette)
98 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
BruU's If l]^^^, services of Father St. Cyr Averc thus lost to
to Retain 1 he Catholics of Chicago, it was not for lack of repeated
at. Cyr
was a daughter of Louis Ouilmotto. According to the Fcrgxts
Jlistorical Scries, 7: 56, art. "Chicago Marriages Recorded in
Peoria Co.," John B. Beaubien on May 11, 1830, married Michael
Welch or Welsh and Elizabeth Ouilmette.
"He was our first [?] Irishman and his wife was tlic (hui;^!!-
tcr of Antoine Ouilmette of Ouilni(>tte's reservation in tliis
county. ' '
Among the signers of the 1833 peiition of the Catholics of
Chicago was Patiick Walsh. See Illinois Catholic Jlisiorical Ee-
ricic, 2: 4()7, for infoimalion concerning these early Welshes or
Walshes of Chicago and their claim to be considered the first
Irishmen in the city.
June 28, 1834. Josette Beaubien, wife of Jean Baptiste
Beaul)i(>n. (Josette Laframboise, wife of Colonel Beaubien, was
of mixed French and Ottawa blood.)
June 28, 1834. Alexander, son of Jean Baptiste Beaubien
and Josette Laframboise.
December 22, 1834. Robert Jerome Beaubien, son of Jean
Baptiste Beaubien. Godparents: Robert Kinzie and Gwenthalin
Whistler.
August 25, 1835. Abram [?] Schwartz, son of
Schwartz and Marie Belbare [?]. (The handwriting of this
entry is difiicult to decipher. Schwartz is the first German name
occurring in the register.)
Totaling up Father St. Cyr's baptisms in Chicago, we find
them to number 19 in 1833, 12 in 1834, 14 in 1835, 36 in 1836,
and 12 in 1837. His last baptismal entry is dated March 19, 1837.
Father Schaefifer's baptisms, as entered in the St. Mary's Rig-
ister, range from September 5, 1836, to July 24,1837. They
include five administered on the same day, April 20, 1837, in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I?aptized on this occasion by Father
Schaeffer were Matilda, daughter of Solomon Juneau and Josette
Vieau, and "Margaret Klark, sixteen years of age, born amongst
the Indians." These Milwaukee baptisms appear to be the earli-
est on record for that city.
Father St. Cvr's second marriage in Chicagft bears date
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 99
efforts on Bishop Brute's part to retain him for his
diocese. The latter wrote to Bishop Rosati, March 11,
1837:
March — , 1835, when he married Mark Bourassa, son of Daniel
Bourassa, and Josette Chevalier, daughter of Louis Chevalier, and
' ' gave them the nuptial benediction in the Catholic Church of
Chicago." His first marriage in the city dated 1834, month and
day not recorded, appears to have ])een that of N. Murphy and
Mrs. M. Frauner(?).
Father St. Cyr officiated at only twelve burials during his
pastoi-ate at St. Mary's. In June, 1834, was buried "one of the
daughters of Mr. Colewell [Caldwell] agent of the Indians." In
July of the same year, day of the month unrecorded, was buried
Mr. Braner [Brennan?] "recently arrived from Ireland," who
died suddenly and was interred ' ' according to the rites of the
Catholic Church."
For access to Father Cyr's Register the writer is indebted
to the courtesy of the Paulist Fathers in charge of St. Mary's
Church, Chicago.
Father St. Cyr died February 21, 1883, at Nazareth Convent,
a house of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a short distance beyond the
southern limits of St. Louis, Missouri. A sketch of his life after
he left Chicago may be read in Zurbonsen, In Memoriam, a Cler-
ical Bead Boll of the Diocese of Alton, Illinois. Data concern-
ing the missionary activities of Father St. Cyr outside of Chicago
will be found in the Illinois CatJiolic Historical Bevieiv, July,
1920, art. "Northwestern Part of the Diocese of St. Louis," by
Rev. John Rothensteiner, who draws this interesting picture of
Father St. Cyr: "It was in 1878 that I, as a seminary student,
visited the blind old man, the last link then connecting the heroic
days of Bishop DuBourg and Rosati with the living, progressive
present, in his retreat at Nazareth Convent. He was a man of
small stature, with hands and face of translucent whiteness, as
of pure wax. Being unable to read the Ordinary of the Mass, he
was permitted to say the Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin every
63434 \
100 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
"I fear it is too late and quite impossible to request tliat
Mr. St. Cyr protract his stay a little while longer and
yet, see how many priests you have, my good Bisliop — aready
51 and 4 more whom you are going to ordain. As to the
chalice which he has in Chicago, if Mr. Lalumiere has not
got back those that were sent to St. Louis to be gilded, you
might keep one of them and Mr. St. Cyr could leave his own
in Chicago."
In two letters addressed in May of the same year to
the Bisliop of St. Louis, Brute reveals how keenly he
felt over the situation in Chicago where Father Schacffer
was left to minister single-handed to the Catholic popu-
lation now going forward by leaps and bounds.
"I have not been urging you earnestly enough or with
confidence enough in our Divine Master to acquiesce in
Mr. St. Cyr's wishes and my own, at least for a few montlis
longer. I am so sick I do not think I am in a condition to
go to Chicago to see my worthy Mr. Schaeffer. I( has ])eeu
a great consolation to me to see them [Messrs. St. Cyr and
Schaeffer] so ready to help each other — and you have seen
from St. Cyr's detailed letter that the care of 2000 Catholics
is in question. "What hope them for Dubuque and the whole
of Northern Illinois and Wisconsin Territory Be so
good as to take this last remark into consideration — do it,
I implore you, well-beloved and venerated colleague, not
for me but for the great common cause. I believe that this
provisional arrangement, even after all thi' Javois you have
already granted, will be blessed of God, as He has blessed
it in the past, for you have already doubled the number of
clergy in your diocese since 1834, when on second tliought
vou agreed to send Mr. St. Cvr back to Chicago.
day. And I was told he did so regularly witli the assistance of
another priest. Little did I know then of tlic importance of this
feeble old man in his earlier days; but his presence impressed me
as that of a saint, the bright sun of whose soul was breaking
throuffh the tlnn veil of the bodv containing it."
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 101
Since my retui'ii I hear notbiug sijoken about except
emigrants and the cry for priests that goes up on every
side. What shall we do, especially as our French priests are,
many of them at least, still quite too weak in English? And
as for German priests — alas ! Where shall we find them ? It
is heart-breaking. I should think it necessary, the need is so
pressing, that we write to the Bisbojis of Ireland or Germany.
I intend to write at least to Keane, the Vice-President of the
Irish Seminary. How I tremble to think in this situation,
which must be the same for yourself, that you do not grant
me the extension of time which Mr. St. Cyr himself solicits,
and which Avould be so capital a thing for the North — for
Wisconsin even and that soon, if only Chicago be given time
to get her strength. At any rate, I have ventured to entreat
you again in a letter which you will have found in Cincinnati.
Ah! Monseigneur, grant me all you possibly can. I have no
second priest to send to Mr. Schaeffer for those 2000, perhajDS
at present 3000 Catholics, so amazing a thing is this deluge
of Catliolic emigration.^® "
By July Bishop Brute felt that he must acquiesce
in the loss of Father St. Cyr, "that great favor con-
ferred by the diocese of St. Louis on our own"; but
he was deeply grateful to the Bishop of Saint Louis for
having been permitted to retain so long the services of
that zealous priest :
"Nothing remains for me, Monseigneur but to thank you
with the fullest outpouring of my heart for all the good which
"Brute a Rosati, May 7, 1837; May 19, 3839. Though still
without an adequate supply of priests, the diocese of Vincennes
showed considerable growth during the period 1834-37. "As to
Missionaries, instead of the total of 2 (Fathers Lalumiere and
Badin) which appeared in the almanac of 1835 and which aston-
ished the Holy Father himself, behold us now sixteen priests and
we shall be eighteen when you read these lines." Letter of
Brute, May 24, 1837, in the Annates de la Propagation dc la Foi,
10: 159.
102 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
]\lr. St. ("yr has done in Chicago during the protracted staj'
you have accorded him, nor can I murmur in any wise against
his recall. I bless, too, this excellent priest and shall never
think of him before God other than as the pastor of a ])arish
whicli he has in very truth created and where I hope his
nu'inory will continue long to encourage this new Hock to
prcscrw and his successor to enlarge still further the great
aiiioniif of initial good that lias been accoinplislieil."!"
Father Sehaeffer did not long survive the departure
of Father St. Cyr from Chiacgo. "I announce with
grief," wrote Bishop Brute to the Leopoldine Associa-
tion of Vienna, "that I have lost one of my excellent
fellow-workers by death. ]\Ir. Sehaeffer of Strassburg,
who accompanied me to America, whom I sent to the
]\Iission of Chicago immediately after my arrival and
who preached in French and English as also in German,
and by his exceeding zeal in the service of souls had
won the love of all, died to our great sorrow on October
2, [1837], feast of the Guardian Angels. "-° Father
Sehaeffer 's last entry in the baptismal record of St.
Mary's parish is dated July 24, 1837. Six days later,
July 30, the name of Father Bernard O'Meara appears
^^ Brute a Rosati, July 9, 1837.
■"Bcrichtc dcr Lcopoldincn Stiftung, 22, 1839. Father Mar-
tin I\ini(]i<,f, well known for his early missionary labors in Michi-
gan and Wisconsin, occasionally officiated in Chicago at tliis
period. ''We are requested to state that the Rev. Mr. Kundig
will d(>liver an address on Sunday evening at Russell's Saloon."
Tlie Chicago American, April 27, 1837. Russell's saloon, at the
southwest corner of Lake and Clark Streets, was a meeting-hall
and not a dispensing-place for liquor, as the conventional mean-
ing of the term would lead one to infer. In it took place, Stephen
A. Douglas being one of the participants, the first political debate
ever held in Noithern Illinois.
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 103
for the first time in the same register.-^ The following
year, 1838, Bishop l>rute made a canonical visitation
of Chicago, of which he gives a brief account in his
halting English in a letter to Mother Rose of Emmits-
burg. The letter is dated St. Rose's Day, August 30:
Chicago, one hundred and fifty miles north of Vincennes
on the Lake Michigan, southwest corner; a city of seven or
eight thousand, — largest in the diocese. Alas ! so small a
wooden church where I have just celebrated the Divine Sacri-
fice, though we have near a thousand Catholics, they tell me;
— one priest, Mr. O'Meara, — I had a second, Mr. Schaeft'er,
our Lord recalled him to heaven, I hope.
Arrived yesterday night from the line of the works of
the Illinois canal. I will spend till Sunday here planning and
devising for my successors. Also, so little of genius at plans !
— unless our Lord himself pity such an immense ''avenir" that
I know not how" to Ijegin Avell !
I dream of Sisters here! — but how so? Col. Beaubien
offers lots, etc. Very well — but Sisters"?
A small wooden church, not sufficient for the fourth part
on Sunday; and yet most, (as visual) of our Catholics are of
the i^oorest; and the few better off, (as usual too, in our West)
so eagerly busy at the great business of this West, growing
rich, richer, richest ; — too little ready, when the talk is only
of lots, interest and estate in Heaven; or of placing in its
Bank on earth, by hands of the Church, and that poor Bishop,
the cashier of said Bank, in this part of the world, who
could sign bills of millions of eternal acquittal, etc., etc.
Well Mother! tell me how I w^ll succeed to spirit our busy
Chicago to build a good, large brick church. Another man, —
yes, some proper man might succeed, not this unworthy
Simon.
But enough! I must go to meet Mr. O'Meara, and devise
plans. I would take more pleasure to speak of the shanties
=^ " I have sent an assistant to Mr. Sehaoffer, Mr. O 'Meara,
an Irish priest, who came to join us a short time ago." Brute a
Rosati, June 29, 1837.
1S39
104 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
whore I liavo liveil. ami have done some duty these few days
past ; but now I am in the eit}', and owe myself as well to the
city as to the shanties.-- "
Death of ^Vithin a year of this visit to Chicago, Bishop Brute
^rfj' t^ied in Vincenncs on June 2G. 1839, at the age of sixty.
His death was due to pulmonary consumption, which
developed from a cold he contracted while riding on
the outside of a stage-coach iji Ohio on his way to the
Provincial Council of Baltimore of 1837. To the priest
who attended him he remarked the morning of the day
before he died, "My dear child, I have the whole day
yet to stay with you, to-morroAv with God. "-^ With
characteristic zeal and energy he wrote with his own
hands six hours before his death a number of letters
to persons whom he longed to reclaim to a better life.
Rare piety of soul and a very exceptional range of
learning, secular as well as sacred, helped to lend dis-
tinction to the personality of Bishop Brute. Bishop
Quarter, his pupil at the Emmitsburg Seminary, de-
clared that he had never known a more tender piety
than that exhibited by his beloved professor. As a
theologian and master of ecclesiastical lore and as an
uncommonly enlightened and inspiring guide in things
of the spirit, his reputation was high in church circles
throughout the land and many eagerly sought his
advice. A considerable body of his private correspond-
ence, for he was a prolific letter-writer, is still preserved
in various ecclesiastical archives throughout the country,
" Aiuerican Catholic Historical Bcscarclics, April, 1898. On
the occasion of this visit to Chicago Bishop Brute baptized, Sep-
tember 2, 1838, Gwenthlean Harriot Kinzie, daughter of Robert
Kinzie and Gwenthlean Harriet Whistler.
■^ Bayley, Memories of Bishoj^ Brute, p. 85.
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 105
giving reason to hope that an adequate biography of
this remarkable churchman will some day be given to
the world.-*
For the Catholics of Chicago it may be a subject
of solemn pride that the first rude beginnings of the
church in their great metropolis felt for a while the
.shaping hand of the saintly first Bishop of Vincennes;
just as for the Catholics of St. Louis it wall be gratify-
ing to recall that the progress made by the church in
the Northern city during that prelate's administration
w^as due in large measure to the zealous ministry of
Father St. Cyr, "that great favor" in Bishop Bimte's
own words, ''conferred by the diocese of St. Louis on
our own."
The Rt. Reverend Celestine Rene Guy de la Hailan- ^^^'^
nailandiere,
diere succeeded Bishop Brute as incumbent of the see second Bishop
of Vincennes. At the outset of his episcopate there de- of vincennes
volved upon him the painful duty of attempting to
heal a schism in the Catholic congregation of Chicago
due to the independent and refractory course of action
^* Hassaed, Life of ArchMshop Hughes, p. 73. See suijra, p. 75.
Bishop Brute was deeply interested in the early church history of
the Mississippi Valley and over the signature, ''Vincennes," pub-
lished in the Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati a series of letters
in which in his own words, "the ancient labors of the Society of
Jesus in this region, from the Lakes to the Mississippi, were de-
scribed." In an unpublished letter written to Father Elet, S. J.,
President of Saint Louis University, he makes the suggestion that
the site of the old Jesuit Mission at Peoria, Illinois, be marked
with a permanent memorial before all traces of it be lost to his-
tory. Eight letters from Bishop Brute, descriptive of conditions
in his diocese, appeared in the Berichte der Leopoldinen-Stiftung
Im Kaiserthume Oestereich during the period 1837-1840.
106
THE CATHOLIC CHT-RCn IX CHICAGO
Maurice de
St. Palais,
Pastor at
Chicago,
1840-1S44
pursued by its pastor, Father O'Meara, the sole priest
in Chicago after the death of Father Sehaeft'er.
In December, 1839, Father Maurice de St. Palais
left Yincennes for Chicago in company with Father
Du Pontavice, who had been named pastor of Joliet,
the pair travelling in a spring-wagon."^ As Father
O'Meara continued to hold possession of the old church,
which he had caused to be moved from its original site
on Lake Street to the north side of Madison Street
some yards w^est of Michigan Avenue, St. Palais had
to conduct services in an upper room of a building at
the northwest corner of AVells and Randolph Streets.-®
On June 27, 1840 Father O'Meara tendered in wa-iting
to Bishop Plailandiere his resignation as ''pastor of the
congregation of the Catholic Church in the city of
Chicago."-^ He continued, however, to exercise the
ministry independently of the Bishop and against his
prohibition until Father St. Cyr, who went to Chicago
for the purpose, prevailed upon him to retire from the
active ministry. Hi.s last baptism, all his ministrations
-° Alerpixg, History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of
Vincennes, 171, 491.
-«Tlie Neiv World (Chicago), April 14, 1900. The h)t at tlic
northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Madison Street, pur-
cliascd by Father O'Meara from the Government, June 21, 1839,
for $262, was sold by Archbishop Mundelein, January 24, 1920,
for $500,000. It had been leased in 1900 to Montgomery Ward
& Co., who erected on it the Tower Building, one of Chicago's
most conspicuous sky-scrapers. Shortly after purchasing the
property, Father O'Meara was given a quit-claim by Col. J. B.
Beaubien, in whose famous controverted tract the property was
included. In June, 1840, Father O'Meara ceded the property to
the Bishop of Vincennes.
-' Chicago Daily American, Xovember 110, 1840.
Rt. Rev. Maurice de St. Palais, fourth Bishop of Viucemies,
184:9-1877. As Father de St. Palais, he was resident pastor at
Chicago, 1840-1844.
THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 107
of the sacrament having been entered by him with
scrupulous accuracy in the parish records, is dated
August 12, 1841. Adjoining the old church was the parish
rectory, a one-story cottage of frame, w^hich faced east,
being number 115 ^Michigan Avenue. Here Father de St.
Palais took up his residence and here lived the Catholic
Bishops of Chicago until the erection by Bishop 0 'Regan
of a handsome episcopal residence on the same site.
Finding the old church, "a long low frame building,"
utterly inadequate. Father de St. Palais undertook the
erection of a new church, one hundred feet by fifty-five,
on property acquired by him at the southwest corner of
Wabash Avenue and Madison Street. Though in an
unfinished state, it was opened for service on Christmas
Day, 1843. Father de St. Palais was also the purchaser
of ten acres of land for a cemetery at w^hat is now the
intersection of State Street and North Avenue, a point
then beyond the city limits.'^ The rapidly growing pop-
ulation of Chicago added ever to the labors of his
ministry, in which he had the zealous co-operation of
Father Francis Fischer for the German portion of the
flock. They were the only priests officiating in the city
w^hen Bishop Quarter arrived, on May 3, 1844, to take
possession of his episcopal see.
-* The first Catholic l)urial ground in Chicago was near Chi-
cago Avenue, east of Clark Street. Here the town authorities
purchased ten acres in 1833, alloting the southern half to the
Catholics and the northern half to the Protestants. Andreas,
History of Chicago, 2: 448.
CHAPTER V
BISHOP QUARTER
The Fifth Provincial Council of Baltimore having
recommended to the Holy See the establishment of
several new dioceses, among them that of Chicago,
Gregory XVI issued a brief September 30, 1843, erecting
the diocese of Chicago with the entire state of Illinois
as territory and appointing Reverend William J.
Quarter, pastor of St. Mary's Church, New York, in-
cumbent of the new see.' A native of Killurine, King's
County, Ireland, where he was born January 24, 1806,
Father Quarter had come to America as a young man,
made his ecclesiastical studies at Mount St. Mary's,
Emmits])urg, :\Iaryland. where he had the saintly Brute
among his professors, Avas ordained by Bishop Dubois
and was subsequently curate at historic St. Peter's
church. New York, and pastor of St. :\Iary's church in
the same city. Together with Bishop Byrne of Little
Rock and Bishop :\lcCloskey, the future cardinal, he
^ Practically all available biographical data regarding Bishop
Quarter are to be found in Shea, History of the Catholic Church
in the United States; Clark, Deceased Bishops of the Uvitrd
States, and McGovern, Eistory of the Catholic Church in Chi-
cago. The last-named -work contains in reprint the sketch of the
Bishop written by his physician and intimate friend, Dr. McGirr,
a sketch reissue.l by the press of St. Mary's Training School,
Desplaines, Illinois, on the occasion of the diamond jubilee of the
archdiocese of Chicago, June, 1920.
108
Et. Rev. William J. Quarter, first Bishop of Chicago, 1844-
1848. The founder of Catholic education in Chicago. The first
Catholic University, Saint Mary of the Lake, the first Catholic
High-School, Saint Xavier's, and the first Catholic parish-school
of the city owe their origin to him. He was born in Ireland in
1806, labored in the ministry with unremitting zeal as pastor in
New York City and afterwards as chief pastor in Chicago, where
after four years of distinguished service rendered to the new
diocese entrusted to his care he died at the early age of forty-
two.
PDBUCLU
A8TOK. I-K*'0
BISHOP QUARTER 109
was consecrated March 10, 1844, in the Cathedral of
New York at the hands of Bishop Hughes.
Accompanied by his brother, Rev. Walter J. Quarter, ^^'^^"p
i- ^ ' _ Quarter
Bishop Quarter arrived in Chicago on Sunday morning, arrives in
May 5, 1844. That same morning he said IVIass in the CMcago
old church, "a long, low frame building having a small
steeple and surmounted l)y a cross," and preached in
the new St. Mary's at 10:30 o'clock Mass. The new
church of brick "a respectable building," so Bishop
Quarter descriljes it, was destined to be the cathedral
of the diocese until its destruction in the great Chicago
fire of 1871. It was still unplastered at the time of the
Bishop's arrival and a temporary altar was set up
against the western wall.
From the very first the view he took of the outlook
for Catholicism both in Chicago and the diocese gener-
ally was frankly optimistic.
"I am happy to inform you," he writes to Bishop Purcell
of Cincinnati in the September following his arrival in the
West, "that a spirit of great liberality exists towards Catholics
in all parts of this state and in the city a word exasperating
or painful to the feelings of Catholics I have never heard
uttered. Indeed, the citizens appear all like the members of
one united and well organized family where each one consults
for the benefit and advantage of all.
I have already visited a large portion of the diocese and
the prospects everywhere are, I think, bright for Catholicity.
In almost every part of the state there are Catholics settled
and although they are poor, yet they are willing to contribute
of their scanty means towards the support of their church and
clergyman. The greatest privation they have in many places
to endure is that of clergymen to administer to their spiritual
wants. There are at present 22 or [2] 3 priests engaged in the
110 THE (WTIIOLIC CIIT'RCII IX CHICAGO
'missions, but how sinall is tlial iinnilicr coniiiariMl \\itli the
population (if 50 or (ill, 0(10 that they ha\r to attcml. In one
or two years 100 oi- moiv cU-i-uyMicn can l)c actively cniiaged
in those missions.- "
A period of scarcely four j-ears was to roniid out the
career of Bishop Quarter as first inciiinbent of llie
episcopal see of Chicago; but within that narrow span
he w^as to achieve a bi-illiant record of apostolic zeal
and enterprise for the upbuilding of the diocese. Cath-
olicity all through Illinois, but especially in Chicago,
awakened to a new life at the touch of his swift and
splendid energy. A great quantity of debts confronted
him on his arrival in the city; three thousand dollars
on the unfinished cathedral, five hundred on the adjoin-
ing property purchased by Father de St. Palais and
three hundred on the gi-aveyard. Here were almost
four thousand dollars of del)t, an obligation insig-
nificant enough according to present-day standards,
but vei-y disconcerting in those days of almost uni-
versal poverty among the Catholic immigrants, espe-
cially as much of that debt w^as bearing interest as
high as 12 and 15 per cent. To liquidate these
debts liishop Quarter bent every effort from his first
ai-rival in the diocese and before his untimely decease
many if not all of the obligalions had l)eon lil'lcd. "We
are indeed very poor here and I shall have to struggle
hard for some time," he informed Father Carrell,
President of St. Louis University, a few months aftei-
his arrival in Chicago.^
- Quarter to Purccll, Septeiiil)Or 2, 1844, Catholic Archives of
America, Notre Dame University.
" Quarter to Carrell, July 30. 1S44, St. Louis University
Archives.
iv a-ty ■ ''^■s'iKii jT'^-Vrl^^'iTji"
Saint Mary's Cathedral, ercototl liy Father Maurice de 8t. Palais on
ground purchased by him at the southwest corner of Madison Street and
Wabash Avenue. One hundred by fifty-five feet, the' length being along
Madison Street. Opened for divine ser^■ices Christmas Day, 1843, and
dedicated by Bishop Quarter the first Monday of October, 1845.
BISHOP QUARTER 111
More pressing even than the question of debts was
the question of an adequate number of priests for the
needs of the diocese. Fathers de St. Palais and Fischer,
the only Catholic clergymen in Chicago when the Bishop
took possession of his see in 1844, were recalled to their
diocese of Vincennes the next month and left Chicago,
where they had done excellent work, the following
August. But, within a few months of his arrival in
the city he had ordained five priests, Fathers McMahan,
McGorisk, Kinsella, Brady and Ingoldsby and was soon
receiving clerical reinforcements from other dioceses.
Step by step Bishop Quarter proceeded to organize his
diocese and to insure to his clergy the helps calculated
to maintain their ministry at a high standard of effi-
ciency and zeal. In April, 1847, he convened a diocesan
synod in the new Seminary building which was pre-
ceded by a "spiritual retreat" of three days conducted
by Father Francis De Maria, S. J., professor of theology
in St. Louis University. Thirty-two priests were in
attendance, while nine were excused on account of ill-
health or the dif^culty of travelling from remote corners
of the diocese. Statutes for the diocese were drawn up
by the synod and duly promulgated. On November 12
of the same year the first theological conference of the
diocese was held in the new Seminary chapel of the
Holy Name of Jesus, while a similar conference was
held on the same day at Alton for the priests of the
southern section of the diocese.*
^ Father De Maria, who was an excellent classical scholar,
composed a Latin inscription recording the praise of Bishop Quar-
ter for having convened his first diocesan synod. The inscription
is in McGovern, p. 82. The first to receive holy orders in Chi-
112 THE CATHOLIC ClIIKCIi IX CHICAGO
Beginninff Catliolic cducatioii ill Clucago owes its beginnings
edncation to Bisliop Quai'tei'. On June 3, 1844, scarcely a month
in Chicago aftcr coRiing to the AVcst, he opened in Father St. Cyr's
old frame church, which had been removed from its
original site to the north side of Madison Street between
Wabash and Michigan Avenue, a Catholic school for
boys, the first of its kind in Chicago, w^hich he dignified
with the name of the "College of St. Mary."='' "June 3d.
On this day the ncAv Catholic College of St. Mary's,
Chicago,'" the Bishop thus records the event in his
Diary, "was opened for the reception of students. The
professors are Rev. ^Messrs. IMcGorisk and Kinsella.
Rev. Mr. jNIcMahan will assist when necessary. The
College opened with five students, Timothy Sullivan
making the sixth." "Shortly after my arrival," wrote
Bishop Quarter the following Sc])teml)er to Bishoj)
Purcell of Cincinnati. "1 commenced a small college in
a very humble way — hoping that at some future day
we may have means to carry it on more extensively —
we have given it the eui)li()nious name of St. ]\Iary's
of the Lake.""
cago were Patrick McMahan and Bernard McGorisk, ordained
priests by Bishop Quarter, May 2-i, 184-4.
"See supra, p. (il. Thougli Father St. Cyr projected a school
for the Catholic chiklreii of Cliica<;'o, no evidence tliat it was
actually opened is at hand.
" Quarter to Purcell, Septend)er 2, 184-4, Catholic Archives
of America, Notre Dame University.
The text of Bishop Quarter's Diary, with continuation by
Father Walter Quarter and Bishop Van de Velde, the whole con-
stituting an invaluable contemporaneous record of Catliolic his-
tory in the diocese of Chicago during the period 1844-1853, is
reproduced in cxtcnso in McGovern's, The Catholic Church in
Chicago.
r
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BISHOP QUARTER 113
This humble beginning, perforce a makeshift, was
presently to develop into an institution commensurate
with the expansion w^hich his far-eyed vision saw Cath-
olicism was to undergo in the Middle Western States.
As a preliminary to his educational scheme, he secured
from the Illinois Legislature an act dated December 19,
1844, incorporating "The University of St. Mary of
the Lake." One cannot but be surprised at this remove
of time at the boldness of the Bishop's educational
venture undertaken within six months of his arrival in
Chicago and amid conditions that seemed utterly out
of keeping with such an ambitious scale of preparation.
But somehow this youthful, far-eyed prelate looked
steadily to the future and the future did not belie his
expectations.
In February, 1845, another bill of far-reaching im-
portance for the interests of Catholicity in Chicago,
constituting the Catholic Bishop of Chicago and his
successors a ' ' corporation sole ' ' to hold property in trust
for religious purposes, was enacted into law by the
Legislature of Illinois.
Of these two measures Bishop Quarter wrote at the
beginning of 1845 to Bishop Blanc of New Orleans:
"So far I have no cause of complaint, thank Providence.
I have just got a bill through the Legislature chartering for
us a University, 'The University of St. Mary of the Lake.'
The bill passed without opposition. I have now another bill
before them, which, if it passes, will be highly beneficial to
Religion, I trust. It is a bill authorizing myself and my
successors to hold all properties ecclesiastical for which they
have been granted, purchased, etc. This bill if it passes, will
obviate the necessity of anything in the form of trusteeism in
114 TIIK CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
tliis diocese forevei-. There is not a ti'ustee in tlie diocese nor
shall there he as long as I live.""
Vniversiiy of III tlic spriiig of 1845 Bisliop Quarter undertook a
St. Mary ^- ^^ ^Y\G East to collcct monev for the new College
of the Lake i • i i
and Seminary which he now planned to buud on prop-
erty acquired by him on the North Side. The property,
which comprised an entire block bounded by Chicago
Avenue, Cass, Superior and Wolcott (now State)
Streets, had belonged to Chicago's first IMayor, AVilliam
B. Ogden, who with public-spirited generosity donated
one-half the block to Bishop Quarter.'" The appeals
made by the latter in the various cities of the diocese of
New York netted a little over three thousand dollars.
On October 17, 1845, work was begun on the new in-
stitution, as chronicled in the Bishop's Diary. "[17th
Oct. 1845]. On this day the workmen began to dig the
foundation of the University of St. Mary of the Lake.
The name of the man who has contracted to build it is
Jas. O'Donnell; the name of the architect is Daniel
Sullivan. In digging the foundation they found shells,
an evidence it would seem that this was caused by
the waters of Lake ^Michigan, which have since receded."
By November 22 the building, which was of frame, was
under roof, and on July 4, 1846, the University opened
its new quarters with appropriate ceremonies. It is
pleasant to recoi'd tliat a note of emphatic American-
ism was struck in the exercises of the occasion. The
Declaration of Independence was read by one of the
students, there was an apostrophe to America and a
' Quarter to Blanc, January 17, lS-i5, Catliolic Archives of
America, Notre Dame University.
"'So, according to the writer in the Illinois Catliolic His-
torical Hcvieiv, 2: 137.
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BISHOP QUARTER 115
Latin ode to Liberty and the exercises concluded with
the "Star Spangled Banner". The degree of B. A. was
conferred on this occasion on Lawrence Hoey, J. A.
Keane and Dr. J. Walsh of New York.^ This red-letter
day in the educational history of Chicago was marked
by a procession of the Catholic clergy and laity to the
college grounds.
"Fancy to yourself an entire open black or square, in
the northeastern part of the city, a short distance from the
Lake Shore, enclosed with a substantial, high, close plank
fence, with a beautiful, architectural three-story wooden edifice,
with brick basement and colonade front, situated on the north
half of the block, and fronting the south and surrounded on
all sides with native forest trees of stately growth; oaks,
linden, cottonwood, elm, etc., shading a grassy lawn, and you
have in your mind's eye the 'University of St. Mary's of the
Lake,' which is just now quite the Lion of the day Avith us.
Fancy to yourself again, on a cool summer morning, and
that the anniversary of the glorious birthday of Liberty, an
immense concourse of people, old and young, great and small,
in rapid movement threading the different streets of our city.
See them finally settle around the Cathedral and the public
square on the Lake Shore, see the proud Montgomery Guards
in beautiful uniform, a company of adopted citizens, headed
by a spirit-stirring band of music; see the Sunday School
children by thousands, as white and pure as angels ; see the
Sons of Temperance with their elegant banners, and see the
streets filled with lookers on, as this well-ordered procession
proceeded to the University, accompanied by the Bishop and
Clergy, Professors and Pupils of the College and you have
the whole movement before you.^ "
* Catholic Magazine, 5 : 460.
^ M. L. Knapp iu the St. Louis News Letter, August 1,
1846. The University building stood, facing south, on the
south [?] half of the University block (Chicago Avenue, Cass,
Superior, State Streets) and well towards the middle of the block.
Illinois Catholic Historical Eeview, 2 : 138.
116 TIIK CATlIOLTf' rilT'RClT IN CHICAGO
Two days later, July 6, oi'tlinations were held for the
first time in the new University Chapel of the Holy
Name of Jesus and on the 14th of the same month the
students of the Seminary Department moved from Iheir
old quarters into the new University building.^"
"The Metropolitan Catholic Almanac and Laity's Directory
for 18-io lists among the institutions of the "Dioccss" of Chicago,
,St. :\[aiy's Ecclesiastical Soniiiiary uikI St. Mary's College of the
Lak(\ wliich latter, in the same publication for 1846, appears as
the University of St. Mary's of the Lake. (The correct title is
the one appearing in the charter — University of St. Mary of the
Lake.) "This Institution is situated in the city of Chicago and
on the borders of Lake Michigan. The location is pleasant,
healthy and suflficiently remote from the business part of the city
to make it favoralile to the pursuits of study. The ample grounds
and extensive meadows in the vicinity will afford the students an
opportunity of enjoying healthful exercise and abundant recrea-
tion in the free and pure air." Father Badin, who was in Chi-
cago in the summer of 184G, lias this to say of the University:
"Bishop Quarter has fourteen theologians in his Seminary. The
College is Ijeautiful, solidly built and without tlaw and free from
debt." Badin to , June 14, 1846. For an institution
catering to the needs of what might almost be called a frontier
settlement, the range of subjects which it offered was surprisingly
complete and did not differ essentially from the curriculum ob-
taining in the best present-day institutions of collegiate grade.
"The course of instruction will embrace Hebrew, Greek, Latin,
French and English Languages, Poetry, Rhetoric, History, Myth-
ology, Geography, Book-keeping, Arithmetic, xUgebra, Mathe-
matics, Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, Natural Philosophy
and Chemistry. The German, Spanish and Italian Languages,
together with Music and Drawing, will also be taught if required;
but for these there will be extra charges." Metropolitan Catholic
Almanac, etc., 1845, p. 113. An article from the pen of Msgr.
Daniel J. Riordan in tiie Illinois Catholic Historical Eevicw, 2:
135-160, is the best account available of Chicago's first Catholic
University. Of the early students of the University some were
BISHOP QUARTER 117
Provision had thus been made for the Catholic edu- sisters of
cation of the male youth of Chicago and for the training ^'^"'^
of the clergy. Bishop Quarter now took in hand the task
of securing educational advantages for the Catholic girls
of the city. At his invitation six Sisters of Mercy from
the Pittsburg community arrived in Chicago on Septem-
ber 23, 1846, to establish a convent and open schools.
The names of these first nuns to arrive in Chicago and
inaugurate there the great work of the Catholic educa-
tion of women, which has assumed such splendid propor-
tions in our own day, are deserving of lasting record.
They were Sister Mary Agatha 0 'Brien, Superioress of
the new foundation and Sisters Mary Vincent McGirr,
Mary Gertrude McGuire, Mary Eliza Corbett and Mary
Eva Smith. With them came also, to supervise the
beginnings of the new establishment, Sister Mary
Frances Ward, Superioress of the community of the
Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburg.^^
Until better quarters could be provided for them, the
Bishop gave over to the Sisters his residence on
]\Iichigan Avenue, a low, one-story frame house of very
humble appearance, but considerably more pretentious
than the little cottage in w^hich he thereupon began to
later to fill posts of distinction in the Church, as Bishops McMul-
len and Baltes and Archbishops Riordan and Ireland, of whom
tlie two latter, however, attended the institution for a brief period
only. It may be noted here that Bishop Quarter had made the
Virgin Mother patroness not only of his University but of the
entire diocese. "I have concluded to adopt the Ordo published
in New Orleans in this diocese, which is under the special protec-
tion of the Immaculate Mother of God." Quarter to Blanc, No-
vember 18, 184-i, Catholic Archives of America, Notre Dame Uni-
versity.
" Bishop Quarter 's Diary.
118 THE CATHOLIC CFH^RCH IN CHICAGO
lodge. The Sisters at once organized St. Xavier's
Academy as an institution for young ladies, conducting
classes in the old cluirch vacated a few months pre-
viously by the students of the University on the comple-
tion of their new l)uilding on the North Side.
A contemporary press-notice ])espoke a hearty wel-
come on the part of the city to tlic first (^atliolie nuns
to estal)lish themselves in Chicago.
"A school for young ladies is this clay opened by these
Sisters of Mercy (than whom none are more competent to
teach) in the old chapel in the rear of their residence on
tlie Lake Shore. They also visit the sick and distressed and
disjjense mercies to the wretched and those whom poverty has
chained to her car. Ere long, too, they contem]ilate forming
an Orphan Asylum. What citizen is there who will not hail
the coming of these Sisters of Mercy as among the choici'st
of blessings for our city.^- "
In September, 1847, the Sisters moved into tlio new
brick building built for them by Bishop Quarter on
AVabash Avenue on church ])roperty contiguous to the
Cathedral on the south. The cost of the structure was
$4,000, of which some .$3,000 were a gift from tlie Asso-
ciation of the Propagation of the Faith, a Catholic
international agency with headquarters at Lyons in
France.^^ A contemporary description of the new
^-Chicago Daily Democrat, October 24, 1846. Andreas, 2:
406, states that the Academy of St. Francis Xavier was "organ-
ized" September 24, 1846. Norris and Gardiner's Chicago Di-
rectory, 1847-48, give as location of "St. Francis Xavier Female
Seminary," the corner of Michigan Avenue and Madison Street.
"Andreas, Uistory of Chicago, 2: 406. "A substantial brick
building, 40 feet square, 3 stories high, has been erected in "Wa-
bash Avenue, near Madison Street, for the purpose of a nunnery,
owned by tlie Catholic Church, cost $4,500; Peter Page and Alex.
BISHOP QUARTER 119
Academy notes that "it is an elegant building and
situated in a most beautiful spot, commanding an
agreeable view of Lake Michigan and but a square from
its banks, surrounded with everything that could render
it desirable as a suitable place for the instruction and
training of youth and health combined. . . . Viewed
at a distance from the lake, the Academy, adjoining the
Cathedral whose radiant spire, heavenward pointing,
may be seen afar off amid the beauteous trees that
surround it and which oft'er an agreeable shade, presents
an admirable and highly picturesque appearance. "^^
St. Xavier's Academy was incorporated by act of
the Illinois Legislature in 1847.
Though the Catholics of Chicago were reckoned by St. Patrick'
Bishop Quarter in 1846 to number only 1,300, one tenth
the population of the city, he organized, in the course
of that year three additional parishes, St. Patrick's, St.
Joseph's and St. Peter's. St. Patrick's church, built at
the earnest desire of the Bishop's brother, Father
Walter J. Quarter, who undertook to collect and pay
for it and who was appointed its first pastor, stood at
the southwest corner of Desplaines and Randolph
Streets, on the west side of the River, where Irish im-
migrants had begun to settle in large numl^crs. The
architect and builder was Augustine Deodat Taylor, who
had built the first St. Mary's, and the cost was only
$750. March 10, 1846, "the frame of the building was
raised," and on Easter Sunday, April 12, the church
was opened for divine service. The following August
Loyd, builders, van Osdel, architect." Norris and Gardiner's
Chicago Directory, 1847-1848.
" McGovEUN, op. cit., p. 151.
Catholics
120 THE CATHOLIC CHT^RCII IX CHICAGO
Father P. J. McLaiislilin succeeded Father Quarter as
past or. ■'■■''
Gcnnan MeamvliJle, steps had been taken to ])rovide the
German Catholics of the city witli their oavu liouses of
divine worship. The earliest attempt to bring them
religious instruction in llieir own tongue, for the great
bulk of them, lately ari'ived from Europe, were utterly
without knowledge of the vernacular, was ai)i)arently
made by Father Bernard Schacii'er, a Strassburger, and
the first German-speaking priest to reside for any length
of time in the city (1836-1837). Father Francis Fischer
ministered to them during the period 1842 [?] -August
24, 1844, on which last date he withdrew from Chi-
cago to return at the summons of his Bishop to liis
own diocese of Vincennes.^*' On the same day that
Father Fischer left Chicago Father Gaspar Henry
Ostlangenburg arrived there from Galena to succeed the
former as pastor of the German Catholics of the city.
September 25 of the following year, 1845, Father John
Jung reached Chicago from Strassburg in Alsace and
was immediately given charge of the German-speaking
Catholics. During all this time that part of the Catholic
body was without a church of its own, services with
German sermon being held on their behalf at certain
hours on Sundays at the old and later at the new St.
]\Iary 's.
In his efforts to build one or more churches for the
Catholic immigrants from Germany settled in Chicago,
Bishop Quarter turned for aid to the Leopoldine
''•Andreas, op. cit., p. 294; Bishop Quarter's Diary.
'" Father Martin Kundig, of tlic Diocese of Detroit, held serv-
ires for the German Catholics in the spring of 1837 in the so-
called Saloon, a large hall for public gatherings. Cf . supra, p. 102.
I'dii ^^
.V (
jf
aBUC LIBRA
BISHOP QUARTER 121
Association of Vienna, established by Father Reze,
future Bishop of Detroit, in 1828 for the purpose of
financing the destitute German Catholic churches and
parishes of the United States. To the Archbishop of
Vienna, as President of the Leopoldine Association, he
wrote October 7, 1844:
"The newly created diocese embraces the entire State of
Illinois. About fifty thousand Catholics live within this
territory, of which the great majority are Germans and
Irish. Up to date but few Americans profess the Catholic
faith; we trust, however, that its holy light, through the
efforts of the missionaries, will, ere long, enlighten many and
guide them to the true fold of Christ. A great number,
especially in recent times, have already returned to the all-
saving church. Here, in Chicago, my so-called episcopal see,
we have but one Catholic church, and even this one churcli
is not yet completed. Thus far only the main walls are
under roof and with much effort the construction of the
sanctuary has been sufficiently advanced to enable us to officiate
therein. To complete the nave of the church we are dependent
on the subscription monies, which are being contributed very
sparsely by an already otherwise poor and needy congrega-
tion. We were compelled to mortgage church property to
prevent the sale of the church building on account of the
debts incurred. I hope to God, however, that brighter times
are at our doors. Day by day the number of Catholics is
growing, of whom the majority are immigrants, who purchase
a piece of land or some field to cultivate and thus by diligence
and untiring labor to earn a livelihood.
Whereas many German Catholics have already settled
here in Chicago, I indeed deplore the fact that they as yet
have no church of their own; thus far they have the only
church here in common with the Irish and the English. Con-
sequently the divine services are divided between them. At
8 :30 o'clock the f onner and at 10 :30 o'clock the latter come
to attend Holy Mass and to hear a sermon. Those among the
Germans who understand English also frequent the last
service.^^ "
'^'Illinois CatJwlic Historical Beview, I: 227.
122 THE CATHOLIC CnTKCH IN' CHICAGO
For a remittance of almost a thousand dollars from
the Lcopoldine Association to the needy diocese of
Chicaj^o, Bishop Quarter conveyed his thanks in a letter
addressed to the Archbishop of Vienna under date of
December 20, 1845 :
"ITdw can I adequately thank you for the great generosity
and tender love you entertain for the poor diocese of Chicago.
Your welcome epistle, dated June 20, 1845, arrived here about
the end of August ; I was not at home at the time, but it was
delivered to me immediately upon my return
During the past two years my band of missionaries has
been increased by sixteen, which is indeed a source of much
consolation to me. A new clerical Seminary has also been
erected, at which one professor especially teaches the German
laiigaage in order that the students on entering tlie holy
l)riesthood may be enabled to preach and hear confessions in
this language. The new Cathedral is likewise completed and
was dedicated on the first Sunday of October, 1845. German
priests are ministering to the German Catholics in their own
language, both here in Chicago and vicinity, as well as in
otlier parishes in this diocese. But as yet the Germans have
no church of their own, which is indeed a great drawback.
The faithful of every nationality gather in one and the same
church ; this does not permit of special religious instructions
for German children and people in their own language, and
consequently no Geraian priest can exercise a direct influence
over them, which would be possible if they had their own
chureli, in which the sermons and instructions could be con-
ducted in the German language.
I therefore earnestly beg of you to provide nic with
means to ameliorate these conditions and to buihl a clmrcli
for the Gei'man Catholics oi" this city. I beseech God to touch
tile licai'ls of some benefactors for tliis i)urpose.^^ "
In the following January Bishop Quarter again
appealed to tlie Archbishop of Vienna for aid to enable
^'^ Illinois Catliolic Ilistorical Beviciv, I: 231.
BISHOP QUARTER 123
him to build a church and school for the German
Catholics of Chicago. He had in view an eligible piece
of property on which to build them, but the price asked
for it, about $3,500, was beyond his means. Whatever
surplus money he found at his disposal went to pay off
the debt on his Cathedral, amounting to some $4,820,
so that he could be in a position to say that his cathedral
at least was free from incumbrance.^^
In the spring of 1846 Bishop Quarter was at last '^^- ^«*«»"'*'
St. Joseph's
enabled to realize his plans in favor of the German
Catholics of Chicago. We read in his Diary: "March
28th. Rev. jMr. Jung signed a contract today with A.
D. Taylor to build two German Catholic churches in
Chicago. Present : the Bishop, Messrs. Diversey, Shaller,
Busche and Heptinger, both to be built for $1,000." St.
Peter's, a frame structure, 40x60 feet, on the north side
of Washington Street between Fifth Avenue (Wells
Street) and Franklin Street, was dedicated by Bishop
Quarter on August 2, 1846, being the first German
Catholic church to be opened in Chicago. On August
15 following, the Bishop dedicated St. Joseph's church
of frame, 36x65 feet, erected on the North Side at the
northeast corner of Chicago Avenue and Cass Street.
Father Jung was for a period pastor of both parishes.
'^"Illinois Catholic Historical Eevicw, 1: 232. The sixth and
last letter of Bishop Quarter to the Leopoldine Association in
Vienna is published in translation in the January, 1919, issue of
the Bevieiv named. Therein he records gratefully the receipt from
the Association of $1,300, which sum was applied to various needs
of the diocese, e. g. " towards the erection of the Seminary, which
costs ten thousand dollars ; towards the support of the Semina-
rians which amounts to two thousand dollars ; to erect a church
for the Germans of the city which will cost fifty-five hundred
dollars. ' '
124 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
singing High ]\Iass on alternate Sundays at either
church, until he was relieved at St. Joseph's in October,
1847, by Father Schaeffer and at St. Peter's by Father
Liermann.2°
In view of the facts assembled in the preceding para-
graphs the year 1846 must stand out as a notable one in
the parochial organization of the Catholic Church in
Chicago. This year saw the original parish of St.
Mary's thirteen years after its creation by Father St.
Cyr, reenforced by three additional parishes, St.
Patrick's for the Irish Catholics of the AVest Side and
St. Peter's and St. Joseph's for the German Catholics
of the South and North Sides respectively. Moreover, in
1846 were laid the foundations of the parish of the Holy
Name on the North Side, the English-speaking Catholics
resident in that division of the city being assigned in
that year to the spiritual care of the Fathers attached to
the University of St. ]\Iary's of the Lake, who began to
hold services for them in the University chapel of the
Holy Name of Jesus.
Not only in Chicago but throughout his entire diocese
Bishop Quarter bent every effort to build churches where
they were needed and thcrcl)y luring the consolations of
religion within convenient reach of the inpouring Irish
and German immigrants, who constituted the bulk of the
Catholic population of Illinois.-^ He built in all thirty
-"Andreas, op. cit., 295; Catholic Almanac, 1848; Bishop
Quarter's Diary.
=' Bishop Quarter calculated in 1S46 that his diocese was one-
1hird German and two-thirds "Irish, French and Americans."
Illinois Catholic Eistorical Eevieiv, October, 1918, p. 233. A later
estimate made by the Bishop in the same year gave the Germans
BISHOP QUARTER 125
churches, ten of which were of cither brick or stone.
Moreover, he ordained at Chicago during his brief
episcopacy twenty-nine priests, whereas, when he en-
tered the diocese, there w^ere onlj^ six and not a single
candidate for Holy Orders. At his death he left
behind him fifty-three priests and twenty ecclesiastical
students.'- What had been accomplished during his
incumbency as Bishop he reviewed in a spirit of devout
thanksgiving in the last pastoral letter which he issued
to his flock.
"The great increase in the number of the Catholic popu-
lation of this city may be inferred from the following facts :
in the year 1844, when we took possession of this See there
Avas only one Catholic church in the city of Chicago. There
are now four^ together with the chapel of 'The Holy Name
of Jesus,' attached to 'The University of St. Mary of the
Lake.' This one Catholic church, then under roof, but not
finished, accommodated all the Catholics on Sunday. The
German Catholics, the Irisli and American Catholics assembled
Avithin its walls to assist at the divine mysteries and were not
pressed for room. The German Catholic churches of St. Peter
and St. Joseph have since been built ; the Catholic church
of St. Patrick also, which has lately been enlarged by an
addition capable of containing as many as the original edifice.
The University of St. Mary of the Lake has been built
within that time, to which is attached the Chapel of the Holy
Name of Jesus, as also the Convent of "the Sisters of Mercy,"
which has its domestic chapel. Now all of these places set
apart for the worship of God and for the celebration of the
august sacrifice of the Mass are crowded to overflowing every
Sunday with Catholics. What stronger proof is needed of the
grand and rapid increase of Catholics in this eity?-^"
twenty-eight thousand out of a total Catholic pojDulation of fifty
thousand for Illinois.
=^ McGiRR, Life of Bt. liev. William Quarter, p. S7.
=^ Id., p. 86.
126 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
Bishop ^ 111 tiio Diary whieli IJishop Quarlri' kept during his
j)iarij residence in Chicago -with u certain old-world leisiii-eli-
iicss, though there was nothing leisurely in the energetic
stride of his episcopal career, the outstanding features
of his personality are portrayed by his own hand with
intimate and often vivid touch. No other form of
literature leads us further into the innermost secrets of
human character than the Diary or Journal. Bishop
Quarter's Chicago Diary is no exception to the rule.
One may not, indeed, call it a jounial in time. Rather
does it deal primarily with the varied official busi-
ness that crowded the few years of his episcopal career.
And yet withal it does in one entry and another re-
veal very intimately what manner of soul was behind
the steady progress of visible achievement that men saw
and commented on. Zeal, piety, restless energj-, sym-
pathy with his flock, unaffected charity, prudent plan-
ning for the future, these and kindred traits of the
Christian prelate discover themselves in its carefully
written pages. Now he records his joy in the simple
piety and zeal for religion of the Catholic servant-girls
of Chicago; now he describes the solemn services at the
Cathedral, not overlooking to enter accurately the names
and functions of the clergy participating; and now, for
to every phase of his environment he seemed to be
awake, he notes the state of the w^eather or registers the
names of the steamers, which as he looked out towards
the Lake from his little episcopal cottage on jNIichigan
Avenue, he saw entering or leaving the liai'bor. Some
extracts from the Diary are cited:
"1844, May 5. The residence of tlie Bislioi) ami ol' the
clergy at the present time is a small one-story frame buil<ling'
fronting- the lake. There are, at the present writing, only two
priests doing duty in Chicago.
BISHOP QUARTER 127
1844, ]May. The old church is a long, low, frame build-
ing, having a small steeple and bell surmounted by a cross.
The new church is of brick and is a respectable building.
Its dimensions are one hundred feet in length and fifty-
five feet in width. There is a lot of ground adjoining the
neAV church upon which may yet be erected the diocesan
Cathedral; there is also a lot in the rear of the church,
where a free school for the poor of the congregation may
in course of time be erected. There are ten acres of land a
short distance out of town where is now the Catholic burial
ground and where may be built at some future day a Charity
Hospital. The residence of the Bishop and of the clergy at
the present time is a small one-story frame building fronting
the lake. There are, at the present time, only two priests
doing dut}" in Chicago : the Rev. Mr. de St. Palais, French,
and Rev. Mr. Fischer, German ; there are two Seminarians :
Messrs. P. McMahan and Bernard McGorisk, and one boy of
the age of 15, Timothy Sullivan, who is destined for the
priesthood. Second Sunday after the arrival of the Bishop,
May 12th, the Bishop preached at the High Mass, published
that the Seminarians named above would receive sub-
deaconship on the following Thursday (Ascension day) at
8 o'clock Mass; and that there would be a meeting of the
congregation on Monday evening at 7 o'clock to take into
consideration the best mode of raising subscriptions to plaster
the walls and finish the Cathedral. The meeting was held and
a good spirit j^revailed.
May 24th, Friday. Today the Bishoii officiated pon-
tifically and raised to the dignity of the Priesthood the Rev.
Messrs. P. McMahan and Bernard McGorisk.
June 3rd. Today received a letter from the Bishop of
Yincennes recalling to his diocese Rev. Messrs. de St. Palais,
Fischer, De Pontavice and Gueguen.
June 15tli. On this morning the Bishop set out, in com-
pany with Rev. Mr. de St. Palais for Joliet, with the intention
of visiting a portion of the Diocese, set out for
Ottawa The roads were very bad; swam the horses
over the La Salle river; stopped that night at Verniets within
nine miles of Ottawa; reached Ottawa next day early; had
128 THE CATHOLIC CIH'RCH IN CHICAGO
some (lillicuKy in itassiiio' the sloug-lis; had to ajiply I'ails to
lift the carriage out of them twice; found a steamboat ready
to sail down the Illinois river; stopped at Peru.
June Tilth. Walked to La SaUe; saw the chufch and
clergymen.
August 23rd. Rev. Maurice de St. Palais took his de-
l^arture from Chicago for the diocese of Vincennes.
November 1. On All Saints Day formed a society among
the children of the congregation having for its ol)je(-t their
religious instruction.
In the ))egimiing of this month the spire of the steejile
was elevated on its base. The steeple erected this montli also,
the first and onlj' spire, as yet, in the city of Chicago.
1845, March 15. Saturday, 9 o'clock. Just noticed the
steamer Champion sailing out of Chicago harbor for St.
Joseph, Mich., her first trip there this season.
"Some weeks previous to Holy Week, Margaret Donohue,
domestic at the Bishop's, inquired of the Bishop if there
would not be a Repository prepared for the Blessed Sacra-
ment during Holy AVeek. The Bishop had but little hope of
making much preparations for Holy Week, owing to the
unfinished state of the church; but when the question was
asked he told this pious girl to make what preparations she
could. She immediately set to work and the following pious
girls, all of whom are living out, lent their aid, viz. ]\Iary
Long, who was indefatigable, Mary Casey and Mary Gleason.
These girls collected amongst their ac(|uaintance many orna-
ments. Mr. Thomas Aughoney, one of tlie Seminarians, had
already constructed a neat altar in the basement of the clmrch,
and this the girls proposed dressing up for a Repository.
When Holy Week arrived, they spread on the jthitform of
the little altar a carpet they had already purchased and then
went on arranging the drapery, flower vases, etc., until it was
tastefully and very neatly arranged before Holy Thursday.
It is worthy of remark that when tlie funds gave out and
they could not purchase all the artificial flowers they wanted,
so as to weave a wreath for the front of the altar, they
stripped their bonnets of their ornaments and made a wreath
of those flowers to adorn the Altar of their God, wliich before
TMii ^L ■
ROSARIST'S COMPANION;
OR,
MANUAL OF DEVOUT EXERCISES:
CUMI'RlSI.VCi
NIGHT AND MORNING PRAYERS,
PRAYERS AT MASS, &c.
The Rosaries of D. V. i\I., and of Jcsiis; tlie Little
Oflice of die D. V. M.: llie Kiiius of the Coii-
fraleiuity of tlie Scapular; togetiierwith the
Indulgences granted to tiie Confrater-
nitiud of Rosary and Scapular.
THE DKVOTION OF THE
WAY OF THE CROSS
OF THE
SACRED HEART:
And of the Association for a Happy Death, called
Bona Mors.
THE ARCH-CONFRATERMTY OF THE
IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY,
For the Conversion of Sinners.
VESPERS,— OR EVENIXG OFFICE OF THE CHURCH,
in LATIN AND ENGLISH.
CHICAGO I
PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETOR,
And sold Ijy Charles M'Donnel, corner of Market and Randolph
Streets, near the South Branch Bridge.
Title page of the first CMtholic liook puMisheil in Chicago.
"During his stay, the latter [Rev. James Cummiskey] has pub-
lished a catechism for the Diocese that has received the sanction
of the Bisliop, and a work entitled "Rosarist's Companion," for
the use of the members of the different Confraternities of which
it treats. These two are, it is believed, the first Catholic books
ever published in Chicago." Bishop Quarter's Diary. Copy of
Hosarist's Companion in possession of Miss Harriet McDonnell,
daughter of Charles McDonnell, proprietor of Chicago 's first
Catholic book store.
BISHOP QUARTER 129
might have subserved their own vanity! May our Heavenly
Father reward such devotedness, such piety in his humble
handmaids. At his birth the poor were the first to wait on
the Infant Jesus. At his death also, and in this new See of
Chicago, the poor girls were the first to prepare for our
Lord the Repository.
March 24. On this evening at 6 o'clock the steamboat
Bunker Hill left the harbor of Chicago for Buffalo — the first
boat run on the lake this season — a fine, cool evening — clear
weather.
Low Sunda,y, March 30. There was in the church Rev.
Jas. Cummiskey, who is sojourning in the city since last fall.
During his stay, the latter has published a catechism for the
sanction of the Bishop, and a work entitled "Rosarist's Com-
panion," for the use of the different Confraternities of which
it treats. These two are, it is believed, the first Catholic works
ever published in Chicago. A Catholic book-store has been
opened last week by Charles McDonnell; this is the first
Catholic book-store in the city.^*
April 7. Monday morning, at 9 o'clock, a violent snow-
storm set in. About an hour previous, mountainous clouds
hovered over the lake, towards the northeast, their peaks
sunclad, their flanks dark and shadowing. They burst opposite
Chicago and emptied themselves of snow to the depth of
three or four inches in the city. The lake swelled its waves
and as the storm has not subsided entirely at 10 o'clock, the
troubled, agitated waters of the lake still rage and rave. The
Champion was seen returning into the harbor, having made
probably a fruitless attempt to reach Milwaukee.
January, 1846. About the first Sunday of the New Year,
Sister Mary Agatha O'Brien, first Mother Superior of the
"Sisters of Mercy" in Chicago, formed a society amongst the
female children of the congregation, called the society of the
" The McDonnell bookstore was on the east side of Market
Street, between Lake and Randolph Streets. Miss Harriet Mc-
Donnell, a daughter of Chicago's pioneer Catholic book-dealer, is
still a resident in the city.
130 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
"Children of Mary." About sixty female children entered their
names as members.
On the Saturday before the first Sunday after Epiphany,
Mr. Hampston, one of the Seminarians, foi-med a society
amongst the boys, under the patronage of *St. Joseph.'
January 9th. The first Sunday after Epij^hany the fol-
lowing named Catholic gentlemen met in the Bishop's room
after Vespers : .'Messrs. John Breen, John McGovern, Charles
McDonnell, William Snowhook, Thomas Kinsella, John Devlin,
all Irish, and Mr. Ellis, Scotch, and had a conversation re-
garding the propriety of establishing a society to be known
by the name of the 'Hibernian Benevolent Emigrant Society.'
The Bishop said he approved highly of the, design of forming
such a society — that it was called for by every feeling of
humanity, benevolence and charity — and that it should have
his hearty co-operation. He showed that the active efforts of
such a society could not fail to benefit the State, whilst it
would be of service to the emigrant in a variety of ways.
Many had sought the West during the jiast year. It was
likely that a large number would turn their steps westward
the coming s]:»ring and every feeling of sympathizing hiunanity
seemed to require that tliere l)e someone to liid the stranger
'Welcome.' " -'
Death of The stream of Bisliop Quarter's health ami enei-gy
Quarter '^^'^^ flowiiig at full tide when death claimed him at the
early age of forty-two. On Passion Sunday, April 9,
1848, he preached at the Cathedral High ]\Iass on the
Apostolicity of the Church. Father Jeremiah A. Kin-
sella, President of the rniversity of St. ]\rary of the
"'"Tlio march of the Catholic religion in this State [Illinois]
is onward. Nothing will appear so obvious to the traveller, even
the least observant, as this fact. A constant flood of emigration
pours into this fertile country; every ship or steam-boat that
ploughs through Lake Michigan to Chicago comes loaded with
settlers, the most of them are Catholics." "Americanus" in the
St. Louis Ncius Letter, August 8, 1846.
BISHOP QUARTER 131
Lake, who was present, declared that he had never heard
the theme handled with more telling effect.^'' On leaving
the pulpit the Bishop expressed himself as feeling very
much fatigued after the effort and it was remarked that
his voice at Vespers on that day lacked its usual fullness
of tone. But otherwise he did not appear particularly
unwell and in the evening in converse with his friends
his customary liveliness of manner did not forsake him.
He retired early, after remarking to Father McElhearne,
who resided with him, that he felt indisposed, but that
he thought sleep would restore him. About three o 'clock
in the morning, j\Ionday, April 10, Father McElhearne
was awakened by loud moans that came from the
Bishop's apartment. Hurrying at once to his aid, he
found him very weak and in great distress from a severe
pain in the head. The Father realized that the Bishop 's
strength was rapidly failing him ; and so, after summon-
ing medical aid, he proceeded at once to administer to
him the last rites of the church. Scarcely had this timely
-° Bishop Quarter appears from numerous testimonies to have
been an excellent preacher. In this connection the following item
from the St. Louis Neivs Letter, November 21, 1847, may be
quoted. It refers to a slow and tedious river-trip which the
Bishop made from La Salle to Alton during low water : ' ' He
was not, however, while on board idle. He preached several times
to a number of most respectable and intelligent passengers (about
two hundred) composed of physicians, lawyers, merchants and
wealthy planters, the most of whom were just returning from
the Saratoga Springs to their homes in the Sunny South. He
answered to the satisfaction of all the most popular objections
urged against Catholic doctrine and Catholic discipline. All the
passengers were highly delighted with the Bishop — his easy and
dignified manner commanded the respect even of the most
bigoted. ' '
132 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
service Ijccii rendered whvn the I>islioi) ullered the
Avords, "Lord, have mercy on my poor soul." They
were the last he spoke. He straightway relapsed into
unconsciousness, dying a few minutes later. "When Dr.
McGirr, his phy.sician and intimate friend, reached his
bedside, all Avas over. The first Bishop of Chicago had
rested from his labors; but his works, and they seemed
of surpassing merit, folloAvod him."^
"Following- the final entry in Bisliop Quarter's Diary is a
notice of his death written liy Fatlier Kinsellfi, President of tlic
University of St. Mary of the Lalie. "April 10, 1848. Died, at
his Episcopal residence, Chicago, the Eight Rev. Dr. Quarter, the
first Bishop of Chicago. On the day preceding his death, Sunday
of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, he lectured at last Mass
in the Cathedral on the Apostolicity of the church. AVe iuive
never heard so profoui^d a discourse on the same suljject. A\'hut
an open and sincere profession of Faith did the Apostle of this
young church make the day before he gave up his pure sjiirit to
Him who gave it I Shortly before 3 o 'clock on the morning of
tlie 10th, the Rev. Mr. McElhearne, the clergyman who resided
witli the Bishop, and the housekeeper, were awakened liy loud
moans. Tliey hurried instantly to the Bishop's apartment and
found him walking tlirough his room. He complained most of
pain in liis head and heart. He thought there was no necessity
of medical aid, but wished frequently to see the Rev. Mr. Kin-
scHa, President of the University of St. Mary of the Lake. He
began to sink rapidly and the time of his dissolution seemed to
be at hand; so that the Rev. Mr. McElhearne deemed it necessary
to administer to him all those consolations which our Holy Church
prescribes to be given to the soldiers of Jesus Christ at their
dying moments. He lived only a few minutes afterwards. The
soul of the disinterested, the zealous, the holy, pious Bishop Quar-
ter at the hour of 3 o 'clock on this morning fled to its God,
whose vicar he was in truth, to render an account of his steward-
ship and to receive the great reward that was due his truly apos-
tolic labors. J. A. Kinsella, Pres. U. St. M. of the Lake."
BISHOP QUARTER 133
Grief in Chicago over the demise of the brilliant
young prelate, thus snatched away with tragic suddeli-
ness from the scenes of his ever-growing usefulness, was
as universal as it was unfeigned. Through long
hours, great crowds of the Catholic laity and large
numbers of the Protestant population of the city,
clergymen among them, thronged the humble epis-
copal residence on ^Michigan Avenue, where the re-
mains of the deceased were first laid out. At three
0 'clock on Friday, Feast of the Seven Dolors, the funeral
rites took place at the Cathedral wnth every solemnity
which the young Church of Chicago could command.
The Office of the Dead was chanted by the assembled
clergy and an eloquent eulogy of the deceased Bishop
pronounced by Father Feely of Peoria. The remains
were interred in a specially prepared vault under the
sanctuary and directly in front of the high altar of the
Cathedral. Dr. J\IcGirr, Bishop Quarter's physician
and biographer, dwells on the impressive scenes that
marked the obsequies.
"At half -past four o'clock the procession formed to con-
duct the body to its resting place. First came the clergymen
and ecclesiastical students — then the body, borne bj^ six priests
— then the students of the University — then the pupils of the
Academy of St. Francis Xavier — then followed the people
of all denominations, sexes and sizes. It passed out of the
church; moved round to the rear, Avhere a tomb had been
prepared for it beneath the sanctuary, and in front of the
altar which he himself had reared. The ceremony was
orderly and imi^osing. And when the clergymen in their
white surplices, with lighted candles in their hands, and the
beautiful little children of the Academy, dressed in white,
reminding one of guardian angels, watching to protect us,
stood with lighted candles in their hands around the tomb,
134 THE CATHOLIC CIIT-RCII IX CHICAGO
while the body was being eoinmitted to its kindred earth, the
effect was beyond description."
Here in the first Catholic Cathedral oi' Cliicago, at
the southwest corner of Madison Street and ^Va])ash
Avenue, the remains of Bishop Quarter continued to
rest until the great fire of 1871 when they Avere trans-
ferred to Calvary.^^
Testimony of value to the sterling worth of Bishop
Quarter's personality is to be found in the impression
he made in non-Catholic circles of the city. Distin-
guished citizens of the day, like AVilliam B. Ogdcn,
Walter Newberry and J. Young Scammon, though dif-
fering from him in religious affiliation, lent him lilieral
financial aid and encouragement in the various enter-
prises to which he put his hand ; for which generosity,
Dr. McGirr wrote in 1848, the Catholic Church of Chi-
cago OAved them a debt of gratitude which would not
soon be forgotten. One gets an idea of the esteem in
which the Bishop was held l)y his Protestant fi-iends
from the tribute to his memory which one of their num-
ber, ^h\ J. Lisle Smith, put on record in the Chicago
Journal.
''In the social circle he was beloved by all who knew
him. In his public sphere of duty, he was universally admired
and respected. Enemies he had none; for his kind and gentle
spirit disarmed opposers and converted them into Avarm and
devoted friends.
-* A niarblc cenotaph of Bishop Quarter designed by A'an
Osdel and executed in the studios of A. S. Sherman stood in llie
south wall of St. Mary's Cathedral a few feet from tlu> south
altar. It measured seven feet, four inclu^s high by four feet,
three niches wide an<l was surmounted by a ric'ldy ornamented
urn fifteen inches high, "the whole presenting a most 1)eautiful
and striking appearance as you entered the church."
BISHOP QUARTER 135
Such a man's departure to another sphere is a great
calamity. Who can supply his place? Who can, in so short
a sojourn in a land of strangers, again make so many and
such true friends'?"
•'But he is gone — gone to his great reward. Peace to his
ashes. Honor to his memory!"
A similar vein of esteem and affection for the de-
ceased prelate runs through the stanzas of a poem
written on the occasion of his death by a young Prot-
estant poetess of Chicago, Miss Mary A. Merritt.
"Sorrow not as those without a hope"
Now all is over ! to the requiem
Of the deep organ, solemn in its swell,
They bore him onward to the chamber dim.
Our Friend — our Father — he that loved us well !
Never ! ah, never, shall so kind a glance
Send us the greeting he was wont to send,
0 'er the calm brightness of his countenance
The chilling shadows of the grave descend.
His form is resting 'neath the saintly shade
Of shrine and altar that he helped to rear ;
AVithin their silence he hath knelt and prayed,
And it is fitting we should lay him here.
So may the organ's wild and thrilling peal
A mournful requiem o'er his slumber pour,
AVhile our hushed spirits thrill again to feel
His presence near us though of earth no more.-^
Our meagre account of Bishop Quarter's brilliant,
if fleeting, episcopal career in Chicago may here find an
-" Quoted iu McGirk, Life of Bt. Bev. JVilliam Quarter, p. 98.
Miss Merritt devoted the proceeds of the sale of a volume of her
poems to the erection of the marble cenotaph of Bishop Quarter
in St. Mary's Cathedral.
136 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
end. AVlu'ii in llic .Iniio followiii.ii; liis death l>isli()i)
Hughes of New York, who had consecrated him in 1844.
passed through Chicago, he w^as in admiration at what
the dead prelate had accomplished in so short a time,
saying more than once: "Oh, if all would labor like
Bishop Quarter. Look at what he has done ! See the
University, see tliat Convent! "What had he wlien he
came here — and still see what he has left after him.
Bishop Quarter is gone, but Bishop Quarter's memory
shall never be, can never be forgotten in Chicago."^"
'"McGovERN, The Catholic Church in Chicago, y. 89.
!<l
1--'
^
^Ky.- ^
Ijj-,
iH
^ ^
^^^^^K>
*^^H
^^^^'l
C** ^>
1
m
HI
P
V
'-^-''^ '
Et. Rev. Jaiiirs Olivor A'an de Yelde, second Bishop of Chi-
cago, 1849-1853. Born in Belgium in ITDo. Transferred in 1853
to the See of Natchez, wliere he died in 1855. As a member
of the Society of Jesus before his elevation to episcopal rank,
he held impoitant executive positions including those of President
of Saint Louis University and Superior of the Vice-Province of
Missouri.
CHAPTER VI
Bishop Van de Velde
On the death of Bishop Quarter, his brother, Father
"Walter Quarter, at the instance of the neighboring
Bishops, took provisionally in hand the administration
of the diocese, a step subsequently approved by the
Archbishop of Baltimore and the Holy See. Father
Quarter showed himself zealous and energetic in ful-
filling this important charge, though for lack of funds
he made no attempt to carry forward the new projects
to which his brother was about to put his hand. Shortly
before the latter 's death, arrangements had been made
to add to the spacious building of the University another
one of brick. Moreover, the Convent and Academy of
the Sisters of Mercy was to receive an addition that
would double the capacity of the original building, a
charity hospital and an orphan asylum were to be
erected and steps had been taken towards the publication
of a Catholic paper in Chicago. It was left to the
second Bishop of Chicago, James Oliver Van de Velde,
to take in hand and realize these noble designs in the
cause of Christian charity and religious growth left him
as a precious heritage by his predecessor.
Under date of December 14. 1848, Father Quarter
wrote in his Diary: "14th. Received a letter this
morning from the Most Rev. Archbishop of Baltimore
stating that Very Rev. J. Van de Velde, of St. Louis,
137
138
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
James Oliver
Tan dc Velde,
Jesuit
educator
is appointed Bishop of Chicago in place oi my l)i'ollicr,
the Rijjht Rev. Dr. Quarter. Glory be to God! May
his Episcoi^al reign Ije such as will give glory to God
and peace to the Church is all T have to say; I rejoice,
however, that the Very Rev. ]\Ir. Van de Velde is the
person appointed."^
James Oliver Van de Velde was born in Lebbeke,
near Tcrmonde, in Belgium, April 3, 1795. While a
candidate for the priesthood in the Grand Seminary of
Mechlin, he came under the spell of the heroic Father
Nerinckx. then in Bolgium in search of financial aid and
clerical workers for his destitute missions of Kentucky.
It was agreed between the two that Mr. Van de Velde
should accompany the missionary to America and com-
plete his theological studies in IMshop Flaget's Seminary
at BardstoA\ai. Accordingly, in company witli Fatlier
Nerinckx and a party of clerical recruits, among them
several young Belgians on their Avay to the Jesuit
Novitiate at Georgetown College, he crossed the Atlantic
in the spring of 1817, in the brig Mars, Captain ITall.
After a few "weeks' stay at St. Mary's Seminary, Balti-
more, where he recovered from the effects of an accident
he had met with on board the ship, he was received into
the Jesuit Novitiate at Georgetown College, August 28,
1817. Here he remained fourteen years, meantime being
^Bishop Quarter's Diary was continued by Ids brother, Father
Walter Quarter, and later by Bishop Van de Velde. Father Quar-
ter returned to the diocese of New York, to which he originally
belonged, sliortly after the arrival of Bishop \'aii de Velde in
Chicago. He was visited in 1851 at his rectory in New York City
by two young Chicagoans, John McMullcn and James McGovern,
then on their way to Rome, wliore they were to make their ecclesi-
astical studies at the Propaganda.
BISHOP VAN DE ^'ELDE 139
raised to the priesthood, 1827, and discharging various
duties, among others those of professor of Belles Lettres
and librarian of the College. The last-named occupation
particularly appealed to him and he notes in a Memoir
with evident satisfaction the circumstance that he found
the library of Georgetown College, when he assumed its
management in 1818, a mere handful of some two hun-
dred books and left it in 1831 a great collection of
twenty thousand volumes. In that year Father Van de
Velde was attached by his Superiors to the teaching
staff of the college, soon to become a University, con-
ducted by the Jesuits since 1829 in St. Louis, Missouri.
He travelled West in company with Father Peter
Kenny, Visitor of the Jesuit houses in the United
States, and Father William McSherry, Assistant of the
latter, the three having enjoyed the rare good for-
tune on the eve of their journey of being entertained
by the venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton at his
mansion, Doughregan Manor, in Howard County,
Maryland."
Father Van de Velde, after being attached to the
Missouri Jesuits, filled various posts of honor and im-
portance among them. At St, Louis University he was
successively Professor of Belles Lettres, Vice-President
and President. During the period 1843-1848 he was
Superior of the Vice-Province of Missouri, of which
office he had been relieved but a few months when
word came to him that he had been named by the Holy
See to the vacant see of Chicago. An account from
- In keeping with the European custom favoring a certain
prodigality in the bestowal of proper names, the full name of the
second Bishop of Chicago was John Andrew James Oliver Bene-
dict Rotthier Van de Velde.
140 THE CATHOLIC cm KCII l.\ CIIICAIIO
Fallicr \';iii dc X'cldc's own luiiid i^-ixcs iii1ci'csrm<^
(Iclnils of tlic (•ii'cniiisl;iii('cs iiiiilcr wliidi llic .ippiiini-
iiu'iil \\iis r('('('i\('(|.
"Ill llic l)ci;iiiiiini;- of XuNciiihcr of the same year [1848]
Kallicr \'aii dc N'cldc wciil to New Yovk to Iraiisact some
Van (Ic
Vrldr'x
(ipiKiiiil iiicnl
lo the Sve business oL' iiii])()i'laiU'e Inr the \'|icc| l'i-(i\iiicc. On liis
oj vhicayo T(>tui'ii lic i)nss('(l llirouti'li r.alt inline, where on I lie \eiy day
of his arrixal Ihe news had reached tiial tlie Holy I''alhei-
had iioniinaled him lo Ihe \aeant see of ('liiea^n. This inlel-
lii^'cnee was (•oinnmnicaled lo him hy the \Cry lie\. L. \\.
Delnol, Sii|ierior of Ihe Sulpieians, and was eontained in u
h'ltei- which Ihe latter had just received from Right liev. Dr.
('haiiche, l'>isho|) of N'alche/, who was then in l^aris and had
ohlained ollicial in lormal ion u\' il I'rom the Apostolic Nuncio,
iMonsiniior Koniari. I''alher \'an de \'elde lel'l IJaltiniure the
saiiic day, hel'oi'e Ihe news ol' his nominal ion was known to
any ol' his IVieiids, and out-lra\'elled it till he reached Cin-
cinnali. where a telcLiraphic dispatch aniioiincinL;' it had lieeii
recei\-ed from Ihe Archhishop o\' r>alliiiiore on the iiiorniiiu'
of his arri\al. ( )n his way to St. Louis he \isiled I'.ards-
lown to consult Ihe K'e\-. V. N'erhaeu'eii, then I'residenI of S|.
Joseph's Colleiic, concerning' the manner in which he should
act under tiie circunislances in wliiidi he was placed. It was
aLjreed that he should de(dine the nomination luiless coinpelleil
hy an express coinmand ol' Mis lloliness. lli' reached St.
Louis in Ihe heuinniiiL;' (d' Deceinher. There all was known
and the Uriel' with a letter IreeinL;' him I'roiii all allegiance
to Ihe Society (d' Jesus, and appointiiiL;' him lo the \acaiit
see of ('hicai^o, arriscd hut a few ilays later. Il hore ihe
sup<'rscripl ion ol' the Archliishop ol' Halt iiiKU'c. who hy letter
iirLi'ed him to accept. N'ol Ioul;' hel'ore we had heen inrornied
\\\ Ihe papers that iiome had lalleii iiilo the hands o\' the
SocialisI rebels and that the lloly Kalhi'r had lied in disguise
I'roni Ihe holy cily. Ilence b'alher A'an de \ Chle. who was
anxious lo relurii Ihe package, knew not whither lo send it.
■and kept it \\w se\'erai days unsealed, as he had receiNcd il.
In the meantime he wrote to the Cardinal I'rerect of t he
I'ropaLianda and to the ({eiieral of the Societv, who had also
nisiioi' VAN i)i': M'.LDi': 141
left Rome, eiidcavdiMiiii' to he freed I'roin the burden wliidi it
was inteiid(Ml to impose u\m)u liiiu. In his pei'plexity lie went
to consult the Arehl)ishop of St. Louis to know whither lie
should send the Brief o\' ;ii)|)(iiiituient, in ease it should ar-
rive, i'or no one yet knew that lu' had i'ecei\-ed it. Tlie Arch-
bishop, before answering, insisted upon knowiuu' whether the
Brief had been received. On bein^' answered in tlie aflirnia-
tive and having the package ])resenle(l to him he inuuediatelv
broke the seal and examined the contents, lie gaxc it as his
ojiinion that the letter, if not the Brief, contained a couuuand
to accept and used his iullueuce to prexail upon t'ather \ an
de Velde to do so and to he conseci'ated without delay. The
nominee asked for a delay of six weeks to I'ellect on the
matter, hoping that in the meantime he would receixc answers
to the letters which he had written to K'ome and to l"'rance.
Unwilling to accept the nomiiuition and distrusting his own
jndgment, he referred the matter as a case of conscience to
thi-ee theologians, re(|uesting them to decide whether the words
of the letter contained a ]iositi\e connuaiul and whether, in
case they did, he was hound under sin to ohey. Their decision
was in the afliiMuatixe and he suhmitted to hear the yoke, lie
was consecrate(l on Sexagesinui Sunday, 11th of t'ehiuary,
1849, in the Church of St. Francis Xa\iei' attached to the
University [of St. Louis], by the Most K'e\-. Peter 1». Keuiick.
assisted 1)V the r.ishops of Dul)U(|ue and Nasluille. and the
Right Ke\'. Dr. Spalding delivert'd the consecration sermon."
liunu'diulcly al'ter liis eoiiseei'iition, Uishop \'aii dv
Vcldc began to visit some of the parishes of his juris-
diction in the neighl)()rlio()d of St. Louis. ("ahokia.
Kaska.skia and Quiney were gi\-eu au opportunity to
welcome him, and sermons were prcncdied by him in
these ronnds in English, h'reiu'h and (Jenuan.'' lie
'Bishop Van de Velde wnitc; English with an ididnialic ]ir(>-
priety and ease remarkable in one for whom the language was not
a natural inheritance but a laborious acquisition. An (illicial rec-
ord of his attainnuMifs inadc^ liy hi.s .Tesuit superiors noles his ac-
142 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
reached Chicago Friday, March 30, and was installed
in St. :\lary's Cathedral on April 1, Palm Sunday.*
On July 25 following his installation at Chicago,
Bishop Van do Velde started off on his first extended
visitation of the diocese. Though it lasted but five
weeks, he visited twenty-two different places, confii-niing,
preaching and discharging other episcopal duties with
every token of apostolic zeal. At Prairie de Rocher,
in the course of this visitation, he exhumed the remains
of Father Sebastian Meurin, last survivor of the prc-
suppression Jesuits of the Mississippi Valley and had
them conveyed to the cemetery of the »>esuit Novitiate
at Florissant in Missouri. ''Avhcre." as he wrote,
"exists the first cemetery of the restored Society in
the AVest, a beautiful spot, and where his precious
remains reposing near those of Fathers Van Quicken-
borne, Timmermans, De Theux and others will form
the connecting link between the suppressed and revived
Society."^
Destitution jj^ ^ letter addressed under date of December 13,
1849, to the French Association for the Propagation of
the Faith, Bishop Van de Velde sketched briefly but
graphically the widespread poverty and spiritual desti-
tution he had encountered in his first visitation of the
diocese :
of the
Diocese
quaintanco also with French, Flemish, Gorman, Spanish and
Italian.
^Bishop Van de Velde 's Diary in McGovekx, The Catholic
Church in Chicago, p. 101.
'Letter of Van de Velde in Freeman's Journal, September
15, 1849, cited in Clark, Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the
United States, 2: 381.
BISHOP VAN DE \'ELDE 143
"Since my consecration, I have visited almost a third of
my diocese. This episcopal tour of inspection, equivalent to
a journey of twelve hundred French leagues, has revealed to
me in all its extent the misery of the flock entrusted to me.
You will form an idea of it, gentlemen, from this passing
glimjise, the heart-rending accuracy of which I have verified
with m}' own eyes.
In general, the emigrants who come to these parts and who
make up almost the entire Catholic population, are not in a
position to supply even their own wants. Poverty is so great
that there is not a single parish, even among those longest
established, which is sufficiently provided wdth the necessary
equipment for the celebration of the sacred rites. A single
priest has sometimes eight parishes to attend and as he has
for those various stations only one chalice, one missal, one
chasuble, one alb, one altar-stone, he must perforce carry all
these articles with him, however long and distressing be the
way. As to monstrances and ciboria, such things are almost
unknown in the diocese. Thus far, in all the parishes, ranging
through 3,700 English miles, which I have \asited, I have seen
only three monstrances and five ciboria. In default of sacred
vessels they reserve the Blessed Sacrament in a corporal or
else in a tinbox or porcelain cup.
After these details I think it superfluous to give you a
description of my episcoj^al residence. It is on a par with
everything else. I don't know whether it is the humblest in
the world, but at least certain it is that none poorer is to be
found in America." ^
Nothing reveals more pointedly the zeal and energy Bishop
which Bishop Van de Velde brought to the discharge of ^«^'*^
Velde s
his official duties than the manner in which he performed Dianj
at intervals the visitation of his diocese. For one of
his advancing years and uncertain health these periodic
journeys up and down the State, however consoling
from an apostolic standpoint, were by no means pleasant
' Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, 22 : 311
144 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
experiences from the standpoint of personal convenience
and comfort. By river packet, stage, carriage, "miid-
AVagon," and towards the end, occasionly by railroad,
the Bishop made his way to the Catholic settlements
scattered through Illinois often in the most out-of-the-
way and almost inaecessil)lc localities.'^ Certain graphic
entries in his Dianj help ns to understand the strenuous,
uncomfortahle side of these apostolic visitations:
"[1849] June 7th. Tlie Bishop of Chicago arrived at
Galena, having performed the whole journey from the Aux-
phiines River in a mud-wagon, in which he spent two days
and nearly two nights.
September 25th. Said JMass again at Bourbonnais and
left for the South; several members of the Congregation ac-
companied me in carriages and on horseback to the other side
of the Kankakee river, with the Pastor at their head. Passed
through immense prairies; dined at Middleport, county seat
of Iroquois county; thence through ^lilford, and slept at
Bartholomew's tavern.
September 26th. Reached Danville where we dined and
found but two Catholic families. After dinner started for
Paris where we arrived at 10 o'clock p. m., having this day
travelled 72 miles through prairies.
October 11th. Said Mass and left with a troop of liorse-
men for Taylorsville ; stopped at Ewington, countj'-seat of
EfUngham. The people agreed to buy a lot and promised to
build a church on it. Passed through Shelbyville. but one
Catholic there from Lorraine. Slept at a farm-house six
miles further on.
'At the time of Bishop Quartor's death not a single railroad
led out of Chicago. The first railroad to connect the city Avith
outside points, the Galena and Chicago Union, the germ of the
present Northwestern System, was Iniilt in the fall of 1848. In
the following spring Bishop Van do Velde made the trip from
St. Louis to Chicago by river-packet and stage to be installed in
his episcopal see.
BISHOP VAN DE \^LDE 145
October 14tb. Sunday. [Springfield.] Said first Mass
and preached at the last; no choir now, no first Communion
nor Confirmations; the children not being sufficiently in-
structed. No Vespers, no evening service, and this is the
CajDital of the State ! Low frame church, St. John the Bap-
tist, 60 by 27. Spent the whole evening and part of the next
morning hearing the confessions of the Germans.
October 15th. At 9 o'clock said Mass for the Germans.
Forty of them received communion, most of whom for want
of a German priest had not approached the Sacrament for the
last four years.
[1850] June 16th. Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. Said
Mass in the unfinished church of Mt. Sterling; immense crowd
of people, chiefiy Protestants. Confirmation to thirty-five
persons; could find no dinner in town. In the evening left
for Mr. Doyle's (on the way to Quincy) where we spent the
night.
[1851 J November 10th. Left McHenry for Marengo,
and there took the stage for Galena; overset and was near
being killed.
[1853] July 14th. Visited Pittsfield with Rev. James
Dempsey of Quincy, after dinner went and took steam-boat
at Florence for Calhoun.
July 15th. During the night landed amid thunder, rain
and vivid lightning, at Lejarlier thoroughly wet and covered
with mud ; staid [sic] till noon and set out for Mr. McDonald's
in a rough wagon without springs, over stones and gullies ;
after dinner (16th) left McDonald's for the church in a rough
wagon. Found Father Verreydt at the church, slept about
four miles from it on the road."
To the four churches, St. Mary's, St. Patrick's, St. cim^-chof
Joseph's, and St. Peter's and the chapel of the Holy j^r„„jg
Name in which the Catholics of Chicago were worshiping
when Bishop Van de Velde arrived among them, others
were added during the period of his episcopate. At the
corner of Cass and Superior Streets, this being the
southeastern extremity of the grounds of the University
14G THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
of St. !Mary of the Lake, a small frame church of the
Holy Name was commenced bj' Father AVilliam J. Kin-
sella in 1848 and opened for services November 18, 1849.
As the building soon proved inadequate to hold the
growing number of North-side Catholics, a second
church was built by Fathci- Kinsella in 1851 on State
Street between Superior and Huron. Though enlarged
in 1852, the second church of the Holy Name was, like
its predecessor, very shortly found to be unequal to the
needs of the parish, which comprised all the English-
speaking Catholics of the North Side. Accordingly, on
August 3, 1853, Bishop Van de Yelde laid the corner-
stone of a new and spacious edifice of brick on ground
at the south-east corner of State and Superior Streets.
It was Gothic in style, measured 84x190 feet and was
to cost $100,000 when completed. Work on it was far
enough advanced by the Christmas of 1854 to permit
of services being held in it on that day. This noble
structure, one of Chicago's earliest monuments of
ecclesiastical architecture, was swept away in the fire
of October, 1871.«
St. Michael's Meanwhile, the German Catholics of the North Side
were showing an increase in numbers parallel to that
of their English-speaking co-religionists. In 1851 they
nund^ered sixty families and their church, St. Joseph's,
at tlie north-east corner of Chicago Avenue and Cass
Street, no longer answered to their needs. As immi-
grants of their race were beginning to settle thickly in
tlic district about North Avenue, a mile above St.
Joseph's, the project of a new parish on their behalf
was now taken up. At a meeting of the parishioners
* Andreas, nistory of Chicago, 1: 297.
BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 147
of St. Joseph's, June 20, 1852, presided over by the
pastor, Reverend Anthony Kopp, steps were taken
toward the organization of the new parish. Michael
Diversey, one of the most well-to-do of the attendants
at St. Joseph's, whose name is perpetuated in one of
Chicago's splendid boulevards, donated a lot 871/2x130
feet, at the north-west corner of North Avenue and
Church Street, he being the owner of fourteen acres of
land in that localit.y The sum of $750 having been
collected from the members of the new parish, a church
of frame was erected at the cost of $730 on Mr. Diver-
sey's lot and dedicated by Father Kopp under the title,
St. Michael's, on October 19, 1852. Father Kopp
remained temporary pastor of the church until the ap-
pointment in November, 1852, of Father August
Kroemer. A school was opened in 1853, the old church
being used for school purposes after the erection of a
new brick church at the corner of Hurlburt and Eugenia
Streets. Among the donations received for the pur-
chase of a lot on which to build a presbytery was one
of $240 from Cardinal Reisach of Munich. In Febru-
ary, 1860, St. Michael's parish passed into the hands
of the Redemptorist Fathers.''
In 1853 the German Catholics of the West Side, G^^rchof
St. Francis
numbering about fifty families, were organized into a ofAssisi
parish. A church for their use, named for St. Francis
of Assisi, was built at the corner of Mather and Clinton
Streets and dedicated August 15 of that year by Bishop
Van de Velde. It was of frame, had a seating capacity
of 400 and cost some $2,000. Its first pastor was Father
John Bernard Weikamp, who remained in charge until
' Andreas, op. cit., 1 : 275.
148 THE CATHOLIC CTn^Rril IX CHICAGO
1855. In 1867 the parish built a spacious church of
brick on West Twelfth Street and Newberry Avenue.
The ohl clnirch thereupon began under the title of St.
Paul's to serve the needs of the numerous English-
speaking Catholics resident in its vicinity.^"
^'ew Late in 1853 old St. Peter's church at the corner
of Washington and Wells Streets was moved to the
southwest corner of Clark and Polk Streets, following
the parishioners who were for the most part no longer
to be found in the crowded business district that had
gro^nl up around the original site. The first ^lass in
St. Peter's
" Andreas, op. cit., 1 : 297. Father "Wcikamp, who liad been
pastor of the old St. Peter's during the period 1850-1853, resigned
this post owing to chronic difficulties with his trustees. With
means which he had in part brought with him from Europe and
in part collected in Cliicago, he undertook the building of a
churcli and community-house for a Third Order of St. Francis,
which he had established while at St. Peter's. The church, named
for St. Francis of Assisi, was built at Clinton and Mather Streets.
Retiring hither in the summer of 1853 he was followed by a
group of pious souls of both sexes, who chose to live in poverty,
cliastity and obedience under his directions, according to the
spirit of St. Francis of Assisi. With permission of the Bishop,
Fatlier Weikamp organized a German parish in connection with
tlio new church, which was to be without trustees, as it was the
property of the religious community for which it was primarily
Iniilt. In the fall of 1855 Father Weikamp, at the invitation of
Bishop Baraga of Sault-Ste-Marie, transferred his community to
the Indian Mission of Arbre Croche in ^lichigan. On leaving
Chicago he put his church up for sale, an action which elicited
protest on the part of Bishop O 'Regan. The affair was subse-
quently settled by correspondence between Bishops O 'Regan and
Baraga, and in January, 1857, the church of St. Francis was
reopened with Father Gaspar H. Ostlangenbcrg as pastor. Illinois
Catholic Historical Bcview, 3:57, art. Eevercnd Gaspar Henry
Ostlangenberg by Rev. F. G. Holweck.
Catholics
BISHOP VAN DE \-ELDE 149
St. Peter's after its removal to the new location was
celebrated on Christmas Day, 1853, by the pastor,
Father G. W. Plathe. The thirty families that made up
the parish at its organization in 1846 had now grown
to one hundred and fifty.^^
A new site was also found in tliis same year, 1853, ^'ew
for St. Patrick's Church. On Trinity Sunday, May 22, ^^■^''^'■''^'^
Bishop Van de Velde laid the corner-stone of the im-
posing brick edifice, 154x70, which the congregation had
undertaken to build at the north-west corner of Des-
plaines and Adams Streets, three blocks south of the
original church site.
The French-speaking element that made up the ma- French
jority of Father St. Cyr's parishioners in 1833 was
depleted through the migration westward of the French
mixed-bloods and their Potawatomi kinsfolk. How
radically the racial complexion of St. Mary's parish had
been transformed as early as 1837 is evidenced by the
fact that the petition addressed by its members in that
year to Bishop Eosati to retain Father St. Cyr contains
only six or eight French names, the remainder of the
hundred and fifty names affixed to the document being
Irish ■^^ith Imt few exceptions. But in the 'forties and
'fifties a new French element was substituted for the
old one through the arrival in Chicago of numerous
French-Canadians who came to settle down in the
thriving young metropolis. The first priest ordained by
Bishop Van de Velde, Father Louis Hoey, the ceremony
taking place April 22, 1849, was immediately assigned
to the duty of looking after the French-Canadians in
and around the city. By November, 1850, steps were
Andreas, op. cii., 1: 294.
inn
'HE CATHOLIC ClinU'II IN' CHICAGO
<Clmrch of
JSt. Louis
Parochial
schools
being takon to i)i'ovi(le tlicni with a clmrch of their own,
at which time Father Isidore Lcljel, lately arrived from
Canada, was assigned to care for them. Bishop Van de
Velde notes in his Diary for January 1, 1851, tliat High
Mass' at the Cathedral was sung ])y Reverend J. A.
Lebel, "who also preached in French, as the majority
of those who attended were French and Canadians. The
Mass was executed by the French choir with general
satisfaction."^^
In the course of 1851 Father Lebel began the erection
of a church, under the invocation of St. Louis, on the
cast side of Clark Street, between Jackson and Adams,
on ground leased from Captain Biglow, where now the
great Federal Building rises in massive grandeur. The
building, a low frame structure 25x75, cost $3,000, two-
thirds of which sum was contributed by Mr. P. F.
Rofinot, one of the parishioners. In 1852 the church
w^as renovated and in the words of a press-notice of the
day "decorated interioi-Iy in the neatest and most appro-
priate manner and with the taste and artistic effect
which are natural to the French." It was blessed by
Bishop Van de Velde January 16, 1853. A few years
later it was moved from the leased ground on Avhich it
had been erected to the corner of Polk and Sherman
Streets.^''
Parochial schools, first introduced into Chicago by
Bisho]) Quarter, increased in number under his suc-
cessor. The l)oys' and girls' schools attached to St.
"Bishop Van do Velde 's Diary.
" Bishop Vau de Velde had a fondness for giving measure-
ments of churehes in exact figures. His report in the Catholic
Almanac for 1853 gives the material and dimensions of practically
every church in the diocese.
BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 151
Mary's Cathedral were the earliest of their kind. The
boys' school has a particularly interesting history. We
have seen above that "St. Mary's College," the nucleus
from which was to develop the future University of
St. Mary of the Lake, was opened in the old St. Mary's
Church, June 3, 1844, by Bishop Quarter only a month
later than his arrival in the city. In 1846 the new
University buildings were occupied and the old church
building was thereupon vacated. In 1848 there was
opened in the latter St. Joseph's Academy for boys
under the direction and superintendence of the Presi-
dent and Professors of the University. Boys whose
circumstances would otherwise prevent them from ob-
taining a "high-school" education were here to receive
"an opportunity to prepare themselves for the various
business departments of life."^* John A. Hampston,
a seminarian was prefect and manager of the Academy,
which was also intended to serve as a preparatory school
for the undergraduate course of the University. In 1851
the institution appears as St. Joseph's Free ScJiool for
Boys with upwards of forty pupils in attendance.
"This school is kept in South Chicago near the Bishop's
residence and is taught by two young men daily sent
from the University. "^^ In 1854 the parochial char-
acter of the school was fully recognized. "St. Joseph's
Free ScJiool for Boys is kept in an old frame building
(formerly the only church in Chicago) in the rear of
the lot on which the Bishop has hitherto resided. It
belongs to the Cathedral parish as also St. Mary's Free
"Metropolitan Catliolic Almanac, 1849, p. 135.
^" Id., 1851, p. 154.
152 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
School for Girls, kept by the Sisters of Mercy in tlie
rear of the Cathedral. "^'^
St. ]^Iary's parish school for girls dated from about
November, 1847, wlien a portion of the old church built
by Father St. Cyr was detached and moved to the
south side of Madison Street west of AVabash Avenue
and in the immediate rear of the new St. Mary's.
Known first as St. iMary's Second Day School to dis-
tinguish it from the select First Day School attached to
the Boarding Academy of St. Xavier, St. Mary's Free
School for Girls numbered in 1848 , as many as 148
pupils. It shares with St. Mary's parish school for
boys the distinction of being the first in historical suc-
cession of the long and splendid line of parochial
schools which the sacrifices of Catholic clergy and laity
through seventy years ha^'c built up in the metropolis
of Illinois.
The third parochial school was the one opened in
1850 for the cliildrcn of the Holy Name parish in a
rented frame house adjoining St. Mary's Female Or-
phan Asylum on North Clark Street. Instruction was
given by tlic Sisters of j\Iercy, the teachers residing at
the Asylum and later at the IMotherhouse on AVabash
Avenue. In the first year of the school, wliich was
named ^7. James' Free Scliool, the teachers numbered
three and the pupils one hundred and thii'ty. Both
boys and girls were apparently in attendance, but in
1854 the two departments were conducted separately.
"North Chicago — Boys' Free Scliool of the Holy Name
is kept on the lot owned by the Bishop, opposite the
University, and is under the care of the priests of the
" Id., 1854, p. 158.
BISHOP VAN DE \'ELDE 153
parish. St. James' Free School for Girls also belongs
to the Congregation of the Holy Name and is kept in
a frame building rented for the purpose on North Clark
Street. It is taught by three Sisters of Mercy, who
reside on the North Side."^"
The last year of Bishop Van de Velde's residence
in Chicago, 1853, saw the number of free or parochial
schools grow to the considerable total of twelve. St.
Patrick's Free School for Boys had been started at
Desplaines and Adams Streets alongside the new church
then in process of construction, while a Girls' School
was about to be opened on property adjoining the old
church site on Desplaines near Randolph. The French
parish of St. Louis had its school in the old St. Peter's
school-house after the erection in 1853 of the new
St. Peter's at Clark and Polk. Nor were the German
parishes behind-hand in providing educational facilities
for their children. At the beginning of 1851 schools,
"partly free and partly paying" were attached to
St. Peter's on the South Side, to St. Joseph's and St.
Michael's on the North Side and to St. Francis' on the
West Side.^*^ The schools of the parish of St. Francis
were taught by "Brothers and Sisters of the Tliird Or-
der of St. Francis who live in separate communities near
the church."^'-' The only parish school in the diocese
outside of Chicago at this period appears to have been
'' Id., 1854, p. 158.
^^ John Kribler was the first teacher of St. Peter's School and
Joseph Stonimel of St. Joseph's School. Andreas, op. cit., 1:
294, 295.
'^^Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 1854, p. 159. See note 10,
supra.
Asylum
ir)4 THE CATIIOI.IC CIIT'RCII IX CHICAGO
the one opened in 1853 by the Sisters of ]\Icrcy in St.
Mary's parish, Galena.-"
Orphan During the summer and early autumn following
Bishop Van de Velde's arrival in Chicago the dread
Asiatic Cholera was daily taking toll of its people and
an ever-increasing number of Catholic orphans and
half-orphans were being left to the charity of the
diocese. To provide a refuge for these destintute chil-
dren became the need of the moment, which the Bishop
set himself promptly to relieve. Pending tlio time whvn
a common home could be provided on their ])ehalf, a
number of orphan boys were lodged in a house on the
Bishop's premises, while the gii-ls wei'c 1x)arded with
private families at the Bishop's expense.-^ On Sunday,
August 5, 1849, the latter announced to the congrega-
tion of St. Mary's Cathedral that he had rented a
house for the use of the orphans.-- On August 16,
Sister Vincent McGirr and three other Sisters from
the Chicago Convent of the Sisters of ^Nlercy. lo whose
management the new institution was to be entrusted,
moved into the "Female Orphan Asylum" on Wal)ash
Avenue. At a meeting of the Catholic clergy of Chicago,
^" At loast no otlior }>aio('hial schools outside of Chicago are
listed in the Catholic Almanac for these years.
■'^Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 1850. Between July 23 and
August 28, 1849, 1000 cases of cholera with 314 deaths were
reported in Chicafjo. The cholera raged at the same time in
St. Louis, leaving- in its wake, as in Chicago, a large numl)er of
Catholic orphans, to provide for whom St. Vincent's German
Catholic Orphan Asylum was established.
--Bishop Van de Velde's Diary. According to Andreas, op.
cit., 279, the Cumberland House, at the southwest corner of
Wabash Avenue and Van Buren Street, was rented for tlie use of
the orj^hans.
BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 155
held September 11, plans were formulated for the
financing of the Asylum. The management of the affair
was left to the Bishop, who was to appoint committees
of priests and lay-people to undertake the collection of
the necessary funds among the parishes; and the re-
sults attained at the clerical gathering were com-
municated on the following day to the Catholic laity
at a meeting of that body. On this occasion or some-
what later was organized the Orphan Asylum Associa-
tion, the members of w^hich were assessed the very
modest sum of twelve and one-half cents monthly.
Having in September, 1850, purchased three forty-
foot lots on the west side of Wabash Avenue between
Jackson and Van Buren Streets, Bishop Van de Velde
immediately signed a contract with Peter Page, for the
erection thereon at a cost of $1000 of a three-story
building of brick with stone-foundation, fifty feet front
by forty in depth. Augustine D. Taylor, the builder of
Chicago's first Catholic churches, received the contract
for the wood-work.-^ "The Bishop has appropriated to
it all the monies he has on hand and all he expects
to receive before the end of the year, amounting to
almost $2500, and relies upon Providence for the balance
of $1500, which is to be paid on the first day of next
January. This building, however, will afford shelter
only to the female orphans; the boys will have to
remain in a small rented frame building until the Bishop
shall be able to obtain means to build two orphan
asylums. ' '
The cost of the new building, surprisingly low if
measured by present-day standards, was not easily met.
■^ McGovERX, The Catholic Church in Chicago, p. 129.
156 THE CATHOLIC CIirRCII IX CHICAGO
Fairs hold at the City Hall netted $1100, while the
Bishoj) conti'ilmted $1400. The roiiiainin<^ $1500 were
to 1)C obtained throiigli sul)scri])tions solicited by a coni-
mittee of Catholic ladies and ^-enUeinen of the city, '"(^n
February 16, 1851, the orphans havin<; taken posses-
sion of the New Asylum, a donation party was given,
though the weather was unfavorable. Several i)eople
attended and about $100 was obtained in cash, besides
tlour, groceries and some dry goods." (Bishop ^'an
de Yelde's Diary.)
The report of the Orphan Asylum issued in Janu-
ary, 1853, notes that almost three years and a half had
passed since the Sisters of INlercy first devoted them-
selves to the care of the Catholic orphans left in the
wake of the great cholera visitation of the summer and
autumn of 1849. During 1852 eighty-two children had
been maintained in the two departments of the Asylum
at a cost of only $32 per child, thanks to the rigid
economies practiced by the good Sisters in charge who,
moreover, contributed their services gratis to this work
of mercy. The three-story brick building erected in 1850
was reserved at this time to the boys, while the girls
occupied a frame house standing on one of the two
lots on Wabash Avenue purchased by the Bishop.
"From the financial report it will appear that neither
of the asylums has any permanent fund or revenue,
and that for the support of the children we are entirely
dependent on Divine Providence, and upon tlie charity
of our benevolent citizens. Stem necessity compels us
to lun-c I'ccourse to fairs and tea-parties, which would
not be the case if sufficient means for their su]i]iort
BISHOP VAN DE A^ELDE 157
could be procured through other channels."-* Before
the end of 1853, a brick building for the girls to cost
$8000 had been commenced. Sisters and orphans in
1849 numbered 5 and 125 respectively, and in 1863,
16 and 200 respectively. In the last named year the
Sisters of ]\Iercy relinquished charge of the Asylum into
the hands of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
The heroic services rendered by the Sisters of jMercy
in the cholera visitations of 1849 and 1854 did not
escape public notice and appreciation. Speaking of the
former the standard history of Chicago notes that "a
few physicians and (as a rule in such calamities) some
Catholic priests and Sisters of Charity remained to
care for those who otherwise would have been thrown
upon the streets or be placed under the guardianship
of the public authorities. ' '-*'' In the epidemic of 1854,
at the crisis of which the deaths averaged sixty daily.
Sister Mary Agatha, Superioress of the Chicago com-
munity of the Sisters of Mercy, having contracted the
=^ McGovERN, op.eit., p. 172. Seport of the Orplian Asylums
Under the Care of the Sisters of Mercy, Chicago, Illinois (Janu-
ary, 1853). ''The lots, 110 by 180 on Wabasli Avenue, where the
two Orphan Asylums are kept and the new three-story house at
present occupied by the male orphans, was built chiefly at the
Bishop's expense, aided by a collection made for the purpose in
the city of New York, and by the charitable contribution made
by some of our citizens. The frame house, at present occupied by
the female children, stands on one of the lots bought by the
Bishop and is much too small and too incommodious for the
purpose for which it is used. It was the Bishop 's intention to
erect a building for them equal in size and dimensions to the
one occupied by the male orphans."
-^^ Andreas, op. cit., 1 : 596.
158 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
disease on a visit to a destitute siek family, succiniil)od
to it, a martyr of charity.
^ercy With the beginnings of Merev Hospital in Chicago
Hospital ,1 P T\- t t-r -, ~r-r
the name of Bishop \an de Velde stands in intimate
connection. Before him Bishop Quarter had cherished
the project of a Catholic hospital in the chief city of
his diocese, but his untimely death intervened before
the project could be realized. To his successor was to
come the opportunity to inaugurate this great work of
Christian charity. Already in September, 1850, Bishop
Van de Velde had announced his intention of building
a hospital, though "such was the destitution of the
Catholics of the city that he must almost exclusively
depend upon Providence for the means of erecting it. ' '-^
As a preliminary step to the venture, application
was made at Springfield for a charter of incorporation
of Mercy Hospital, which Avas issued in 1852. ]\rcan-
time, pending the erection of a building of tlieir
own, opportunity was afforded the Sisters of Mercy
to engage without further delay in tlie hospital
service they so eagerly desired. Late in 1850 the
trustees of the Illinois General Hospital of the Lake, a
private non-denominational institution chartered in
1849, were soliciting from the public subscriptions to
the aggregate amount of $5000. which modest sum was
deemed sufficient to place the hospital on an operative
basis. JMoreover, they announced a course of paid
lectures of a popular character by Dr. Nathan Smith
Davis, the proceeds to go to the support of the new
hospital. This was opened November 23, 1850, in the
old Lake House, a three-story brick l)uildinff at the
-'^ McGovEKN, op. cit., p. 129.
BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 159
corner of Michigan and Rush Streets erected in 1835
at a reputed cost of $100,000. The capacity of the
hospital at its opening was only twelve beds, the
patients being charged at the nominal rate of $2 or $3
a week.^® In February, 1851 the management of the
hospital was assumed by the Sisters of IMercy, as Bishop
Van de Velde notes in his Diary.
"1851 Feb. 23d, Washington's Birthday. Just received
the news from Springfield that the act had passed to incor-
porate the Mercy Hospital and the Mercy Orphan Asylum.
Four Sisters of Mercj^ were sent to take charge of the tem-
porary hospital opened at the Lake House. [Act did not
Ijass the Lower House.]
27th. Articles of agreement drawn up and signed with
respect to the services of the Sisters at the Lake House Hos-
pital, and the arrangements for erecting a Hospital under our
new charter at some future period, to be commenced, if pos-
sible, this year." ^'^
It was not until 1853 that the Sisters of Mercy were
enabled to establish a hospital under their own auspices.
Withdrawing in June of that year from the Illinois
General Hospital of the Lake, which was thereupon
discontinued, they attended for a while the patients in
the County Hospital in Tippecanoe Hall at the south-
-^ Andreas, op. cit., 1: 578.
-' McGovERN, op. cit., p. 144. The Hospital cared for 220
patients during the year February 20, 1851-February 20, 1852.
The Metropolitan Catholic Almanac for the years 1852, 1853, con-
tinues to give the Lake House as the quarters of Mercy Hospital.
According to Bishop Van de Velde 's Diary the Orphan Asylum
building on Wabash Avenue was first occupied by Mercy Hos-
pital in October, 1853. That the Hospital was moved from the
Lake House as late as June, 1853, is stated by Andreas.
160 THE CATHOLIC CIH'RCH IN CHICAGO
east corner of State and Kinzie Streets and then opened
Mercy Hospital in the recently erected building of St.
Mary's Female Orphan Asylum on Wabash Avenue,
between Jackson and Van Buren. Here JNIercy Hos-
pital remained until 1863, when new quarters were
found for it in the St. Agatha's Academy building
at the northwest corner of Calumet Avenue and Twenty-
Sixth Street,
Between the Easter of 1853 and his departure from
Chicago for Natchez the following November, Bishop
Van de Velde visited nearly every Catholic congregation
and settlement in the state, travelling during that i)eriod
over six thousand miles and administering Confirmation
to nearly thirty-six hundred persons in fifty-eight differ-
ent localities. While he occupied the See of Chicago,
seventy churches were commenced in different localities
of the diocese, of which number sixty were either en-
tirely finished or so far finished as to be in use for
divine service. Fifty-three were built in places where
before there had been no church at all and seventeen
in i:)laces where old and small chapels were re})laced liy
more ])retcnti()us structures. Of the eighteen churches
in course of erection in the fall of 1853, thirteen were
being built of brick, all of the edifices being of very
respectable size and some one hundred and fifty long and
sixty feet wide. Besides these cluii'ches, all l)egun under
liishoj) Van de Velde, eleven others that had l)oen l)egun
before his accession were brought to com])letion under
him and l)y his exertions. The entire number of
churclies left by him in Illinois was one hundred and
nineteen.-^
•" Western TahUt, October, 1853. A count of the priests of
BISHOP VAN DE \:ELDE 161
Bishop Van de Velde had occupied the see of Chi-
cago but a brief span of four years and a half when at
his own request he was transferred to the see of Natchez.
It was with extreme reluctance, and only after being
assured that the appointment could not be conscien-
tiously refused that he had consented to shoulder the
burden of the episcopate. As soon as free communica-
tion with the Holy See was re-established after the
revolutionary disorders of 1848, he wrote to the Holy
See tendering his resignation on the plea of his ad-
vancing years, the feeble state of his health which was
sorely tried by the severities of the northern climate in
which he was compelled to reside, and his very earnest
desire to assume again the simple life of a Jesuit. No
action was taken by the Holy See on his petition other
than to encourage him, through Cardinal Fransoni,
Prefect of the Propaganda, to bear his burden with
patience and resignation. Having later become involved
in difficulties with a few of his clergy over the title to
certain pieces of ecclesiastical property, which they
were retaining in their own name, he wrote again to
Rome, adding this to the reasons he had previously
urged in favor of his resignation. He was answered that
his petition would be submitted to the prelates of the
First Plenary Council of Baltimore, which was to con-
vene in the Spring of 1852. The Council declined to
accept the Bishop's resignation, though, with a view to
relieving him of a part of the extensive territory en-
the Chicago diocese according to liirthplace for the last year of
Bishop Van de Velde 's administration gave the following inter-
esting figures : Ireland, 29 ; Germany, 12 ; Alsace-Loraine, 7 ;
France, 3 ; Scotland, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, Italy, 2 each ;
Spain, United States, 1 each.
162 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
trusted to his charge, it decided to recoinnieiul to the
Holy See the division of the State of Illinois into two
dioceses, the see of the southern portion to be fixed at
QuincY.-^
As Bishop Van de Velde had purposed visiting
Europe on the dissolution of the Council, tlie i)relates
assembled commissioned him to bear the decrees of
the Council to Pius IX in liome. Here he personally
urged with the Holy Father the acceptance of his resig-
nation or at least his api)ointmjent as Coadjulor or
Auxiliary to another Bishop, that being thus relieved
of his status as Ordinary he might more easilj' secure
his readmission into the Society of Jesus.^'^ The Holy
Father after consultation with the Propaganda declined
to accept his resignation but assured him at a second
audience that he would make arrangements with the
Father General to have him restored to the Society of
Jesus and would probably transfer him to another see
in a more genial climate. A few days later Monsignor
Barnabo, Secretary of the Propaganda, informed the
Bishop that the Holy Father had refused to accept his
resignation, but would insist on his being readmitted
into his Order even as titular Bishop and would, more-
"" Bishop Van do Veklc's Autol)iographi("al M( )itvir []\Is.].
St. Louis University Arcliivcs.
''' Avclil)isliop Kcnrick of St. Louis desired to recommend to
the Holy See tlie appointment of Lislio]) A'an de \'( Ide as his
coadjutor rinii Jiirr .siicc: ssiotii.s ; but the hitter, wiien the ,\.rch-
hishoji intimated to him suidi desire, oljjected strongly on the
ground that he would Iw thus debarred from re-entering the
Society of Jesus. Bishop Van de Velde communicated this in-
formation to Father Do Smet in a letter \vritt(Mi to the latter from
Natchez.
BISHOP VAN DE MlLDE 163
over, transfer him to another see.^^ He declared that
this decision of the Pope was final and could be relied
upon, and he counselled the Bishop to take his choice
of one of the new American dioceses that were soon to
be erected.
Returning from Europe late in 1852, Bishop Van Transfer of
de Velde arrived in Chicago in December of that year. y^J'^^
Fear lest his nomination to one of the new American veide
sees might cause unpleasantness led him to write to the *" ^'"^^'^^^
Holy See shortly after his return suggesting his trans-
fer to the see of Natchez in Mississippi, which had
become vacant by the death of its first Bishop, the
Right Rev. J. J. Chanche.^- His petition was granted.
AVhile engaged in laying the corner-stone of a church
in Carlyle, Clinton County, word reached him that the
Brief appointing him to the see of Natchez had arrived
in St. Louis. By the same mail the Very Rev. Joseph
Melcher, Vicar-General of St. Louis, received a Brief
erecting Quincy into an episcopal see and appointing
him its first Bishop as also Administrator of Chicago
pending the appointment of a successor to Bishop Van
de Velde. Father Melcher 's refusal to accept the ap-
pointment to the new see left the two dioceses of Quincy
and Chicago vacant and unprovided for. In this emerg-
ency. Bishop Van de Velde was requested by Archbishop
Kenrick of St. Louis, Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical
Province, to assume temporary administration of the
two dioceses. This he did until by appointment of
^^ Bishop Van de Velde was I'eadmitted into the Society of
Jesus by the Father-General, John Roothaan.
^- The diocese of Natchez at this period was almost if not
quite the most inconsiderable in the country, numljering only nine
priests, who attended eleven churches.
164 THE CATHOLIC ('HT-RCH IN CHirAGO
Archbishop Kcnrick, Bishop I-Ienni of ^Milwaukee became
administrator of Chicago, while the Archbishop of St.
Louis took over himself the administration of the diocese
of Quincy. Free now to withdraw from Chicago to his
new see, Bishop Van de Velde took leave of the people
whose spiritual destines he had directed during the pre-
vious four years and a half. In a farewell address deliv-
ered at the end of High Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral on
Sunday, October 30, 1853, he frankly detailed the cir-
cumstances that had influenced liini to petition the
Holy See to be relieved of his duties as Bishop of
Chicago. He left the city November 4 for Natchez.^^
^' Bishop Van de Vclde died at Xatclicz, Xov(>mlicr 13, 1855.
A few weeks before his death he had met with an accident which
resulted in a broken leg; and while in this crippled condition
contracted yellow fever, which was epidemic at the time. Father
Peter Tschieder, S. .J ., subseciuently assistant-pastor for many
years of the Holy Family church, Chicago, who attended Bishop
Van de Velde in his last days, detailetl the circumstances of the
prelate's death in letters to his Superior, Father William Stack
Murphy, S. J., of St. Louis.
''Xovember, 1S55. Since Friday the Bishop has tlic yellow
fever ar.d luunanly speaking there is no hope of his recovery.
He has been sinking since this morning. You can imagine in
what position I am — the young clergyman has also the yellow
fever. Father Grignon is still at Vixbourg [Vicksburg] though 1
telegraphed him as also the Ar.-hbishop of New Orleans. I had
the painful duty of informing the Bishop of his critical situation.
In the beginning he would scarcely believe it, but now he is
perfectly rcsigmd. ]\o made his coiift^ssion twire, hist evening
and this morning, and with such humility that I was over-
powered and could scarcely pronounce the formula ahsolutionis ;
he had to help m(> the first time. This afternoon I gave him
Extreme Unction, as theic is no hope of his receiving the Blessed
Sacrament. The Bishop is perfectly in his senses and answered
himself to the prayers. From time to time I say some prayers
BISHOP VAN DE \Ti:LDE 165
In the departure of Bishop Van de Velde for an-
other field of labor the diocese of Chicago lost an un-
usually zealous and energetic worker in the vineyard of
the Lord. Scholarly in all his tastes and mental habits,
with a bent to studious retirement and an aversion for
the publicity attendant on the conduct of ecclesiastical
affairs, he did not permit his tendencies in this regard
to stand in the way of a whole-souled and self-denying
devotion to the episcopal tasks that fell to him on
every side. Though beset by chronic bodily infirmities,
with him. Happily I am not afraid of yellow fever — our Lord,
who put me in this painful situation, has given me also courage
enough to keep to the post assigned me. Without a miraculous
intervention of St. Stanislaus, to whom the Bishop made a No-
veiia, he cannot possibly recover."
''November 13, 1855. Bishop Van de Vclde is dead. He
expired this morning at 7. Two gentlemen watched and attended
on him. At 2 o'clock in the night I was called — I said some
prayers with the Bishop which he repeated — but his mind was
wandering — he perceived it himself. At 2^2 violent spasms took
him, probably the effect of a very strong medicine which he had
taken. Inunediately he lost his senses and I gave him the last
absolution and plenary indulgence. I began the recommendation
of the soul. He was enabled to receive the viaticum which I could
not give him yesterday. It was evidently a favor obtained
through the intercession of St. Stanislaus. He had made a novena
to the Saint — had several times expressed the wish to die on his
feast. "Whilst I was saying Mass at 5 for him, all the Sisters and
orphan girls, who had also made a Novena for him, received
communion. Father Grignon gave him the Viaticum. He remained
suffering till 7 when he expired. All that time the good Catholics
were flocking to receive his last blessing; he gave it with full
consciousness — he spoke even, though very indistinctly. The
people appeared very much attached to him and the Catholic
gentlemen showed great attention, day and night — they all regret
the loss of their good Bishop."
166 TIIK CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
he did not decline the duty of the periodic visitation
of his state-wide diocese, with its rough, unpleasant
experiences in travelling, but performed it at intervals
with unfailing energy and zeal. He built the first
Catholic Orphan Asylum in Chicago, was largely in-
strumental in establishing the city's first i\iercy Hospital
and was at all times energetic and enterprising in pro-
moting the erection of new churches and the organiza-
tion of new parishes throughout the diocese. "He never
rested from his labors," wrote a biographer, "and,
when he finally departed from Chicago for Natchez,
there were few indeed either of the clergy or laity, that
did not sincerely regret the loss of such an apostolic
prelate to the diocese of Chicago ; that there should have
been even a few is one of the sad evidences of human
weakness which the church has sometimes had occasion
to lament. "3*
'^Bishop Van de Vclde's romaiiis lie IruumI in tlic conictery
of the Jesuit Novitiate, Florissant, Missouri. Claiuk, Jhciasal
Bisho2)s of the United States, 2: 389.
Rt. Rev. Anthony O 'Regan, tliiid bishoi^ of Chicago, 1854-
1858. A native of Iiehand, he came to Chicago from Saint Louis
where he had filled with distinction the office of President of the
Theological 8cminarv at Carondelet. Transferred to Dora in
partibus infideliinn in 1.S58, and died in London in 18G0. Painting
by Gregori in the Bisho^js' Gallery, Notre Dame University.
CHAPTER VII
BISHOP 0 'REGAN
AVith the departure of Bishop Van de Velde for
Natchez, the duties of administrator of the diocese of
Chicago, at first taken up by Bishop Henni, were shortly
relinquished by him into the hands of Reverend James
Duggan of St. Louis, who continued to exercise them
until the arrival in Chicago of Bishop 0 'Regan.
Anthony 0 'Regan, born in Lavallevoe. County Mayo,
Ireland, in 1809, was educated at Maynooth College and
immediately after his ordination to the priesthood was
appointed by Archbishop McHale of Tuani a professor
in the diocesan College of St. Jarlath. Professor for
ten years, he w^as subsequently for a period of five years
president of that institution, achieving in his career a^
educator a success that made his name favorably knoAvn
even in ecclesiastical circles across the Atlantic. At the
invitation of Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis, Father
0 'Regan assumed in 1849 the presidency of the new
Theological Seminary established by that enterprising
prelate at Carondelet on the outskirts of St. Louis.
Here he won high opinions on all sides for exemplary
piety of life, scholarship and efficiency in the training
of young men for the priesthood. Bishop Van de Velde
knew him intimately and proposed to the other Bishops
of the ecclesiastical province of St. Louis that he be
recommended to the Holy See for the see of Chicago,
167
Anthony
O'Regan,
Third Bishop
of Chicago,
1S54-1S57
168 THE CATHOLIC CIIT'RCII IX CHICAGO
made vacant by the transfer of Bishop Van de Velde
to Natchez. AVhen the papal documents appointing him
to this dignity came into his hands, he respectfully
returned them to Rome, alleging his unfitness as a man
of bookish and retired habits for the strenuous duties
of an American bishopric. The appointment having
been sent to him a second time, with, a mandate from
the Holy Sec to accept. Father 0 'Regan submitted to
consecration which he received in the Cathedral in St.
Louis, July 25, 1854, at the hands of Archbishop Ken-
rick, assisted by Bishops Van de Velde, Henni and
Loras. Anxiety over the grave responsil)ilities thus
thrust upon him induced a severe si)ell of nervous
debility and it was not until Septem])cr 3 that he was
installed in St. Clary's Cathedral. Chicago.
Though lasting scarcely three years, Bishop
0 'Regan's residence in Chicago saw numerous im-
portant gains for Catholicity in the city and in the
diocese generally. Under him were taken the first steps
towards the organization of the new parish of St. James.
At his earnest solicitation the Jesuits established them-
selves in the city, where they organized the i)arish of
the Holy Family, which in a few years counted on the
roll-call of its parishioners probably a larger number of
souls than any other English-speaking parish in the
I'nited States. He acquired the extensive property on
which was laid out the i)rescnt Calvary Cemetery, where
after the lapse of over sixty years intermoiits still con-
tinue to 1)0 made; and for the shabby little cottage in
which Bishop Quarter and Van de Velde had lodged,
he sul)stituted an ej^iscopal I'csidence of a style com-
mensurate with the dignity of a great Catholic diocese.
Built of marble and brick on property at the northwest
BISHOP o'regax 169
corner of ^Michigan Avenue and Madison Street, it was
finished in 1856 and was reputed in its day one of the
handsomest residences in the city.
During the years that he presided over the diocesan Jesuit
seminary of Carondelet, Bishop 0 'Regan had made pH^^^Zdin
acquaintance wdth the Jesuits of St. Louis. From Chi- CMcago, isse
cago he endeavored to secure their services in some
permanent form for his diocese. Already in the spring
of 1856 Father De Smet, the noted Indian missionary,
informed a correspondent in California, ''Bishop
0 'Regan offers us his college, with two churches. But
where are the men?" In the summer of that same year
Father Arnold Damen, pastor of the Jesuit church of
St. Francis Xavier in St. Louis, assisted by three priests
of his Order, conducted a series of missions or spiritual
revivals in Chicago at the invitation of Bishop 0 'Regan.
A communication under date of August 26. 1856, to the
St. Louis Leader dwells on the very gratifying results
that attended the efforts of the missionaries. The cor-
respondent was Father Matthew Dillon, pastor of the
Holy Name Church and president during the period
January, 1855-August, 1856, of the University of St.
]\Iary of the Lake.
''The spiritual retreat which our Right Rev. Bishop has
provided for the Catholics of this city has just now closed.
For the last three weeks the exercises have been conducted
by five Jesuit Fathers under the guidance of Father Damen.
The fruits of their holy and successful labors are already
manifest. Many Protestants have embraced the Catholic re-
ligion, and the Catholics — to be counted by thousands — many,
very many of whom had for years neglected their spiritual
interests, crowded the churches and confessionals.
170 THE CATHOLIC CIIIItCH IX CHICAGO
The zeal, the piety and labors of Father Daraen and his
assofiates, and his practifal and persuasive elofiuenoe, have
won for these eminent servants of God the love and veneration
of all our citizens, Protestant and Catliolie. From four in
tiie morning until after midnight, these zealous Fathers and
tiie i)aro('liial clergymen have been occuj)ied with tiie duties
of religion, yet all this was insulTicient, sudi was the holy
importunity of the pcoiilc wliom (Jod iiinvcd to prolit l)y their
ministry.
It is understood that twelve thousand, at least, have re-
ceived communion. None of the churches could accommodate
the multitude that crowded from all parts of the city. 'I'lic
cathedral with its galleries newly put up, being found alto-
gether too small, the mission was transferred to the large
enclosure on the North Side known as tlie church of the Holy
Name and here, as if nothing had been previously done, a new
harvest is found already mature.
Years of spiritual indolence are atoned for and a new
life — the life of grace — is begun by hundreds who for many
long years knew not how great a blessing this was. How
consoling to the heart of the Right Reverend Hishop and of
the missionaries must not be this fruit of their labors, this
fresh evidence of the vitality of the Catholic spirit, which it
would seem neither time nor circumstances the most unfavor-
able to its culture can root out of the soul of the sincere
believer.
This is the third retreat with which, within the brief
period of five months, the Catholics of Chicago have been
blessed, the first given by the Jesuit Father Weninger, and
the second soon after by the Redemptorist Father Kiutil.
May we not now hojie that hencd'orth tlie religious progress
of our city will keep even in advance of its astonishing mate-
rial prosperity?
Concedat Deus. Amen. M. I)iij,on'."'
With the results of Father hanicirs missionary
appeals in Chicago in the niidsnminor of 1850 Bishop
' The St. Louis Leader, August 15, 185G.
BISHOP O KEGAX
171
O 'Regan declared himKclf to be highly gratified and he 'ii^hop
accordingly took advantage of the Father's presence in invueathe
the city to renew again his invitation to the Jesuits to ^e^^nsto
establish themselves in the metropolis. Father Damen,
having previously obtained the sanction of his Superior
in St, Louis for the course he now pursued, showed
himself dispose^l to accept the invitation and began at
once to look over the ground to determine a suitable
location for a new parish. Investigation led him to
prefer the AN'est Side, where large numbers of Irish
Catholic immigrants were settling down, A few weeks
after Father Damen 's return to St, Louis, he received
a communication from liishop 0 'Regan,
"Chicago, lUinoiii, September 15, 1850,
To Reverend Father Damen, S. J., St. Louia:
Dkak FATiiKH Damk.v — I have juKt now written to Father
Provincial and I want you to asnist me with him that lie may
grant the request of establij^hing a House in Chicago, You
know its neeesKity and the prospects before it and hence I
have referred to you as one who can give to the Provincial
and others all the requisite information on this subject. May
I beg of you to do so? You could not co-operate in a holier
work. You would be a most eflieient instrument to build up
religion in this eity and diocese. Land can be had quite near
to the locality you wished for, but in a still better plac;e, at a
fair \>r\cAi and in large ^juantities. In one place as much as
six acres can be had. By buying all this, you would, in one
year, have two entirely free. The increased value caused by
your establishment would effect this, 'i'his is a positive fact,
I would also request of yon not to correspond on thi^
matter with anyone what«;ver in Chicago, except myself, not
even with those who, in other respects, would be found most
trustworthy. Already Catholics whom you regard much are
actually spe^mlating on the subject and if they knew you or
I had a preference for a particular place, they would soon
have it bought up. You will write to me soon again.
172 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
I am sorry that I did not merit your thanks better whilst
you were in Chicago. I can never sut'liciently express my es-
teem for you and your worthy Fathers.
I would have written sooner to you and to Father Provin-
cial, but I wished to know more about the land.
With kindest regards for Father De Smet and the earnest
wish of seeing you soon permanently at work in Chicago,
where you are most ardently expected, I am,
Reverend dear Father Damen, very truly yours,
AXTIIOXY,
Bishop of Chicago u)id Admi^tistrator of Quincy."-
In a second letter which Bishop O'Kegan wrote to
Father Damen a few weeks later he expresses again his
desire to see the Society of Jesus estal)lished in Chicago.
''I know I cannot do a better work for religion, for the
diocese or for my own soul than by establishing here a house
of your Society, and this is the reason I have been so very
anxious to effect this. It was on this account as also from
my personal regard and affection for your Institute as for
many of your Fathers individually, that I so urgently ami
perseveringly tried to see this good work accomplislied." -
Bishop 0 'Regan's earnest invitation to the Jesuits
of St. Louis to establish themselves in Chicago having
been definitely accepted, Father Damen acquired in the
spring of 1857 property in that city as a site not only
for the imposing house of worship which he planned to
build, but also for a future college. The property was
located on the West Side a block west of the intersection
of Twelfth Street with Hoosier, or, as it was subse-
quently called, Blue Island Avenue, and consisted of
thirty-two lots, making up the entire block between
Twelfth, May, Eleventh and Austin (Aberdeen) Streets.
"St. Louis tjiiiversity Areliivcs.
BISHOP O 'REGAN 173
March 10, 1857, Father Dameii wrote to his Superior in
St. Louis, Father John Baptist Druyts.
''The answer from Philadelphia has come about the Bull's
head property. They will sell at $600 a lot, which would
make a total of $24,600 [sic] for the 44 lots. The acre which
is in litigation cannot be settled yet. "With this acre included,
there would be 52 lots, and this would make a total of $31,-
400 [sic]. Of this $2,500 would be paid by two Protestant
gentlemen towards the improvement. I w^ent out this after-
noon and made inquiries about the number of Catholic fami-
lies in the neighborhood and I could not tuid a dozen around
the place. I therefore concluded that the place should be
rejected as one that would not pay us for the sacrifices we
have to make. Should your Reverence think differently, tele-
graph (buy the Bull's head). Bishop still continues recom-
mending this place and says that we will regTet it; but I can-
not believe that informed as I am at present about the few
Catholics in that vicinity. Moreover, here we would have to
put xip $10,000 improvements the first year; that is a part of
the bargain."^
Now I have accepted the Southwest Side, three acres at
$5,500 an acre, that is thirty-two lots. Here we will have a
large Catholic population at once, sufficient to fill a large
church. "VYe can put up a frame church, which will answer the
purpose till all the land is paid off. Then it will answer for
a school, and the rest of the land, which we can sell, will help
us to build the college and the new church. In my opinion,
it is decidedly the only place we can take here."
Having thus determined on a site for his new church,
Father Damen returned to St. Louis, whence he had the
satisfaction of advising Bishop 0 'Regan that the busi-
' The Bull 's Head was a tavern at the southeast corner of
Madison Street and Ogden Avenue, where the Washingtonian
Home stood in later years. It was built in 1848 by Matthew
Laflin and owed its name to the neighboring cattle-yards, the first
to be opened in Chicago.
174 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
ncss just concluded by him in Chicago had received the
indorsement of his Superior. Further plans for the
expansion of Catholicism in Chicago were now communi-
cated l)y the Bisho]) to Father Damon.
"Chicago, Illinois, Marcli 21, 1S57.
To Reverend A. Damon:
Kevercnd Dear Friend — I have received your note with
the agreeable news that Father Druyts has conlirmed your acts
in Chicago. I have given thanks to God for this great bless-
ing and I pray that He may always aid with His abundant
graces the holy work. I would strongly impress on you to
come as soon as possible after Easter to collect and commence
the work. This can now be more effectually done, ])ecause
the Sisters of Mercy have given up the project of l)uilding
a Hospital. Moreover, some one else might be walking over
your ground unless you come in good time. I would at once
define your Parish, announce it, and you would attend the sick
calls from my house and have the emoluments and a better
claim in collecting.
I have now another trouble to give j'ou. It is this : I
want to bring the Ladies of the Sacred Heart or some of
them to Chicago and I want this to be done this sunnner. I
will give all the patronage in my power, and this is the only
aid I can give. But at present this patronage is money or
worth it. It stands thus:
The Sisters of Mercy are to give \\y> their Doavding
School tliis sunmier and to convert that house into an hos-
])ital. They now have 4(5 boai'ders — it may be more. All
tliese would at once pass into the school of the Ladies of the
Sacred Heart, with many others, I am sure. In order to
receive them it would be necessary to have a house built and
completed at farthest on the middle of next September. This
can be easily done by a community able to raise money, as I
am sure The Sacred Heart can. I eon.sider all this as a happy
coincidence and as the voice of God calling to ns at one time
the Jesuits and the Ladies of the Sacred Heait.
Do, Dear Father and Friend, comjilete the good work
you have begun. L^se all your inlluence to have this effected.
BISHOP o'regan 175
Now is the fitting time. Property can be conveniently had not
far from your church. In three months, a house can be fin-
ished, and when opened, it will be filled. It will be a transfer
from one house here into another.
I write this day to Madame Galway, and, through God
and his Virgin Mother, I implore success for this good and
holy project. I depend very much on you. Write soon and
work hard for the Sacred Heart's sake.
Yours most affectionately,
Anthony, Bishop of Chicago."
The March of 1857 had thus seen Father Damen noiy Family
Church
make definite choice of a site for the imposing church
edifice which he planned to build. May 4 following he
arrived in Chicago from St. Louis in company with
Father Charles Truyens to take the work definitely in
hand. He carried with him a memorandum of instruc-
tions from the Vice-Provincial, Father Druyts, which
bespeak the high religious purpose that actuated the
promoters of this apostolic venture. '^ Remember why
we go to Chicago, viz. A. M. D. G. — the good of re-
ligion, the good of souls. Let us then have the best of
intentions and often renew them."* Father Damen lost
no time on his arrival in giving out contracts for the
erection of a temporary frame church, a two-story
structure, 20 x -IS, with "a neat balcony erected in
front of first-story," to be delivered on or before July
15, 1857. Jul}^ 12 the church was solemnly blessed
under the title of the Holy Family by Bishop Duggan
of St. Louis. Circumstances had brought it al)out that
Bishop 0 'Regan, to whose efforts were j^rimarily due
the csta])lishment of the Jesuits in Chicago, was not to
preside at the dedication of their temporary church.
St. Louis University Archives.
176 THE CATHOLIC CIIT'HCJI IX CIIICACJO
At the dedicatory services the sermon, an clofiiuMit one,
was preached by Bishop Duggan.
The throng of worshippers soon taxed tlic little lujuse
of worship beyond capacity and an addition was made to
it in August to be followed by a second addition in the
course of 1858. The first church of the Holy Family
stood at the southeast corner of Eleventh and May
Streets. On Sunday, August 23, 1857, Festival of the
Most Pure Heart of Mary, took place, with the Bishop,
his clergy and a great concourse of the laity in attend-
ance, the laying of the corner-stone of the spacious and
permanent edifice of brick. The Daily Times in an-
nouncing the event declared that "the Reverend gentle-
men who have undertaken this enterprise propose to
spend $100,000 on the erection of a temple of worship
which will surpass in size any other in Chicago, which
sum must be raised principally among themselves and
also, it is understood, to found a collegiate institution
with funds of their own, which it is anticipated will
eventually rival that of Georgetown, District of Colum-
bia."
At the time that Father Damcn began his work in
Chicago, the panic of 1857 was in full swing. Lack of
money, business and commercial depression, the growing
number of the unemployed and a general air of rest-
lessness and discontent on all hands were so many
circumstances to render the task of collecting funds for
a new church an appalling one even for the stoutest
heart. Yet Father Damen attempted the task and
succeeded. By the end of May, 1857, the subscriptions
amounted to $30,000. "I get along pretty well" he
wrote in September to Father Druyts, ''and people are
astonished that I can get money at all."
^■" <^„
CO o
1^
<§*■
i — ^
^ ^^< ?^*
fin a. '^
r; " o
O f.
^,y*^|gg^«H, ', jg-ggji
BISHOP 0 'REGAN 177
Work ou the new church went steadily forward. Dedication of
Early in 1860 contracts were let to Patrick O'Connor ^ohj Family
for the towers and front wall of the church and to Church
Robert Carse for the stained-glass windows, ''work to
be equal to that of the windows in St. James' church,
North Side." Progress in bringing the great structure
forward to completion was now so rapid as to pernmt of
the solemn dedication in the midsummer of 1860. The
ceremony took place on Sunday, August 26, Feast of
the Immaculate Heart of JMary, a day in the church's
calendar dear to the heart of Father Damen, and was
carried out with a degree of splendor hitherto quite
unprecedented in the ecclesiastical history of the jMiddlc
West. Thirteen members of the hierarchy were in
attendance, Bishop Duggan being the officiating prelate,
Bishop Fitzpatrick of Boston celebrant of the Pontifical
Mass, and Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis the preacher
of the dedication sermon, while in the progress of the
ceremony sermons were delivered in English by Bishop
Carrcll of Covington, in German by Bishop Henni of
]\Iilwaukee and in French by Bishop de St. Palais of
Vincennes. Besides the prelates named there were
present in the sanctuary Bishops Smyth of Dubuque,
Juncker of Alton, Grace of St. Paul, Whelan of Nash-
ville, Lefevre of Detroit, Luers of Fort Wayne and
Timon of Buffalo. Mozart's Twelfth Mass, rendered
under the personal direction of Father Maurice Oakley,
one of the priests serving the parish, was the musical
feature of the occasion. To Father Damen perhaps no
day in all his career was quite like this in the splendid
tokens of success with which it crowned his labors of the
preceding three years. ' ' The Reverend Arnold Damen, ' '
wrote in 1866 James AV. Sheahan of the Chicago
178 TIIK CATHOLIC C!irU(MI IX CHICAGO
Tribune, "is the Hercules who has in a few years
Avrought all this work. To his energy, his a])ility, liis
sanctity, his perseverance and his great practical intel-
ligence is due not only the erection of this magnificent
edifice but the gi'cat spiritual success which has crowned
the labors of the Society."'^
liesignaiion Dcspitc thc purity of his intentions and his obvious
o'ncnan ^^^^ ^'^^^' ^^^^ ^'^^^ iiitercsts of the diocese, Bishop 0 'Regan
was not to escape from dii^culties that detracted much
from thc success of his administration. He became
involved in painful difficulties wdth certain influential
members of the clergy attached to the University of St.
Mary of the Lake, w^hile the Chiniquy schism, though
substantially healed through his earnest efforts, de-
pressed him greatly and made him skeptical of his future
usefulness to the diocese. In the course of 1857 he
visited Rome where he made earnest petition to the Holy
See to be relieved of his charge. While in Rome he
made acquaintance with the young Chicagoan John
McjMullen, first Bishop of Davenport to be, then a
student at the Propaganda. To McMullen he expressed
the high hopes he entertained for the future of the
Chicago diocese, despite thc ill-success that had attended
his efforts to administer it. "I sec no reason," wrote
the seminarian from Ivome to a Chicago correspondent
in 1858, "why the church should not keep up with the
growth of Chicago. The Bishop speaks in glowing terms
of the Catholic people and how well they assisted him
in building his palatial residence."^
"From an album of Chicago views (1830-1866) witli letter-
press by James W. Sheahan.
'McGovEKN, Life of Bishop McMulhn, Chicago, 188S, p. 117.
BISHOP O 'REGAN 179
The Holy See having accepted Bishop 0 'Regan's Death of
resignation, he was made titular Bishop of Dora in o'^cgan
partibus and thereupon retired to ^Michael's Grove,
Brompton, London, where he spent the remainder of his
days, dying November 13, 1866, at the age of fifty-seven.
He often assisted the illustrious Cardinal Wiseman in
the more solemn services of the Church and was visited
in his last illness by Doctor, subsequently Cardinal
]\Ianning. Among the bequests in his will was one of
two thousand pounds to the Roman Catholic Missionary
College of All Hallows, Dublin, the interest of which
was to be applied to the education of priests for the
dioceses of Chicago and Alton ; and another one of five
hundred pounds tow^ards the erection of a Catholic
hospital in Chicago.'
Nature had not, it would appear, fitted Bishop
O 'Regan to the task of taking tactfully in hand and
administering with success the delicate affairs of a
young and unsettled diocese of Western America. But
as an ecclesiastic, a scholar, and a director of young men
in the mental and moral training preparatory to the
holy priesthood, his reputation ran high in the church
circles of the day and all bore testimony to the rectitude
of his intentions. ' ' It may be said of Bishop 0 'Regan, ' '
wrote a Chicago ecclesiastic whose seminarian days were
contemporary with the Bishop's episcopacy, "that he
w^as a man in the truest sense, single-minded, firm as a
rock and honest as gold. A lover of truth and justice,
w^hom no self-interest could mislead and no corruption
contaminate, he held fast the affection of many and
gained the full respect of all. "^
' Clarke, Deceased Bishops of the United States, 3 : 169.
' McGovERN, Catholic Church in Chicago, p. 195.
CHAPTER VII
BISHOP DUGGAN
•^«'"''* JaTiics Dng:<j:aii, fouiili l^>ishop of Chicago, was born
Fourth Bishop ill .Mu^noolh, County Kildurc, Ireland, on i\Iay 22, 1825.
ofchicnijo, Xa one of a number of youns Irish ecclesiastics who
1850-18()S , , ,, „ ■ . 1 A 1 , • ,
res])()ii(le(l to a call lor recruits sent out by Archbishop
Kcnrick of St. Louis in 1842, he was sent to complete
his theological studies at St. Vincent's, Cape Girardeau,
wliore lu' \v;is (i!'(l;iiii('(l ;i |)fi('sl in 1S47. Assip^nod to the
Cathetb'al parish in St. Louis, he soon distinguished
himself ))y his zealous discharge of the ministery and
by the forc(>ful and eloquent quality of his utterances
in the pulpit. During the vacancy in the sec of Chicago
following u])()n the resignation of Bishop Van do Velde,
he Avas for a period administi-ator of that diocese though
still a simple ])i'i('st. 1 laving been appointed by the
Holy See I>ishf)p of Antigone and coadjutor to the
Archbishop ol' St. Louis, he was consecrated by the
Archl)ishop oL' St. jjoiiis. assisted by liisho])s llenni and
O'Regan. Only a iVw months had (■hii)S('(l since* his
consecration when he ^\as sent by .\rchbishop Kcni'iclc
to Chicago 1o ad as aihiiinist raloi' thei'e after the with-
drawal t'i'oiii ihc diocese of liisiio]) O'Kegan. On
.lannaiy IM. IS")!), he received from the Holy Sec letters
t ransfeiTing him to the scv of Chicago and on the fol-
lowing Sunday he was instaUcd in St. Mary's Cathe-
dral.^
' Sin:.\, Tfistori/ of the CdihoUc Church in ihc Vnitid States,
180
Rt. Rev. James Dufi<;:ui, rdurih I'.isliop of Chicago, 1859-1870. He
was a native of Iioland and came to Ciiicago from Saint Louis, where he
had l)een consecrated Coadjutor to Archliishop Kenrick in 1857. Trans-
ferred to Cliicago, January 21, 1859, and retired on account of infirm
health in 1879. Died in Saint Louis, March 27, 1899. Painting by the
distinf,>iislied aitist, (ieorge P. A. Ilealy, in Ihe N(>wlierry T^ibrary, Chicago.
\'S0^
- >-H-
BISHOP DUGGAN 181
With the advent of Bishop Duggan the diocese felt
a new vitality and energy pulsate through its veins.
Both clergy and laity lent him their confidence and loyal
support and the results of his efficient handling of
ecclesiastical affairs were soon to be felt on every hand.
The church began to assume a higher place in public
regard through the reception into its fold of figures of
public note. Ex-Governor Bissell of Illinois was buried
with Catholic rites in Springfield, Father Smarius, the
Jesuit, preaching the funeral sermon, while Stephen A.
Douglas was received into the church by Bishop Duggan,
who delivered a eulogy over his remains. The Catholic
Institute, a society of laymen founded in the 'fifties to
foster intellectual life and culture among the laity and
promote Catholic interests generally, continued its
useful career. Old St. Mary's was the place of meeting
and lectures and addresses by persons of national and
even international celebrity were delivered at intervals
under the auspices of the Institute. Among the lecturers
whom the Catholics of Chicago were thus privileged to
hear were James MclVIaster, Orestes A. Brownson,
Thomas D'Arcy McGee, John Gough, John Mitchell and
Rev. Donald MacLeod. Particularly active in the affairs
of the Institute were Bernard G. Caulfield, W. J.
Onahan, Col. James A. Mulligan, Philip Conley, Charles
McDonnell and Michael Lantry.-
4: 620; McGovern, op. cit., pp. 196-202. Bishop Constantine
Smyth of Dubuque was for a brief period Administrator of the
diocese after the withdrawal of Bishop O 'Regan. Catholic Alma-
nac, 1858.
- The funeral oration delivered by Father Smarius over Ex-
Governor Bissel was reproduced in the Chicago New World, April
14, 1900. William J. Onahan 's reminiscences, contributed under
182 TiiK CATiinLir riTT-Rni ix Chicago
Of the clergy serving the Chicago parishes during the
administration of Bishoj) Diiggan, several were more
the title Catholic Frogrcss in Cliicago, to the Illinois Catliolic
Historical Review, 1: 176-183, contain interesting data on Cath-
olic life in Chicago from the 'fifties on.
Tlic Catholic Institute was organized January S, 1.S54. On
March 21, 1S5S, a Debating Club was estaWished among its mem-
l)ers, chiefly through the efforts of William J. Onahan and Michael
"W. O'Brien, afterwards a prominent banker of Detroit, who were
eager and enthusiastic supporters of all the activities of the Insti-
tute. In is.j!) tlie Institute appears to have been supplanted by a
new Catholic "literary society" known as the Chicago Lyceum,
the name being liorrowed frdin an older organization of secular
character, which went out of existence in the early 'fifties. The
Catholic Institute wrote a brief but glorious page in the history of
the Catholic lay-aj^ostolate in Chicago. Its objects, as outlined in
the minutes of the Institute in the excellent handwriting of James
A. Mulligan, present an admirable ideal of lay-cooperation in the
church: "The objects of the Association are to establish a Catli-
olie Library and Reading room, to provide for the delivery of
Lectures explanatory of the principles of the Catholic Church as
to her History, Philosophy and Politicks. To present to the Cath-
olics of Chicago opportunities and incentive for improvement. To
multiply the sources of information and to promote a friendly
intercourse and exchange of thought among the members of the
Catholic Body and to excite and maintain a laudable zeal for the
honor and character of Catliolicity. Any Catholic of good moral
standing may become a member of the Institute."
The energies of the militant young Catholics behind the In-
stitute did not run in literary channels alone. Besides nuiintain-
ing a lecture bureau, debating club and library, they promoted
various Catholic social gatherings, taught Sumlay-sehool and an-
ticipated the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in tin- city
by visiting and aiding the poor whose needs, especially during
the great panic of 1857, they made earnest effort to relieve. See
the article. The Chicago Institute and Chicago Lyceum, by John
Ireland Gallery, in the Illinois Catholic Tlistorical Bcvicw, 2:
303-323.
BISHOP DUGGAN 183
especially identified with the church affairs of the day.
Among these were Father Dennis Dunne of St. Patrick's,
Vicar-General of the diocese, Father Thaddeus J. Butler
of the Immaculate Conception, Father Joseph P. Roles
of the Holy Name, Father John "Waldron of St. John's,
Father Patrick W. Reardon, the future Archbishop of
San Francisco, Father John P. McMullen, afterwards
Bishop of Davenport, and Father Thomas Burke of St.
Columbkille's. With these and other zealous clergymen
attending the parishes or filling professors ' chairs in the
University, Catholic life in Chicago gave every token of
health and vigor and promised still greater things to
come.
Bishop Duggan had been chief pastor of the Chicago Cwu War
diocese only three years when the country was plunged
into the horrors of Civil AYar. Ranging himself from
the outset on the Union side in the tremendous conflict,
he was energetic in securing it loyalty and support from
the Catholics under his jurisdiction.^ He encouraged
^ Andkeas, History of Chicago, 2 : 398. ' ' During the late
rebellion, Bishop Duggan has been a strong Union man and has
thrown all his influence on the side of the Government. ' ' Phil-
lips, Chicago and Her Churches, p. 270.
Interesting comments on the attitude of Chicago priests dur-
ing the Civil War period are to be found in the contemporary
letters of Eliza Allen Starr, a distinguished convert to the Cath-
olic Church and a resident of Chicago as early as 1856 : ' ' You
will be more ready to do this when I tell you tliat on the day of
National Thanksgiving Father E[oles] came out in the broadest
and most emphatic manner upon the virtue of loyalty and the hei-
nousness of any breach of its law. On the same day I heard an in-
sti-uction from Dr. B[utler], whose high mass was earlier, and a
more enthusiastic sermon I am certain was not preached that day.
It was grand in its theology, and he brought forward as his exam-
184 THE CATHOLIC CIIT'RCH IN CHICAGO
recruiting, being one of Col. Mulligan's chief supporters
in the latter 's efforts to organize the Irish Brigade,
pies saints, popes, and bishops. He did not content himself with
a negative loyalty, but it was absolute and positive, an actual
support of the present administration and prayers for our chief
President — ardent and persevering prayer. It was one of those
grand bursts of a sanctified enthusiasm to which my good con-
fessor is somewhat liable. From the very first year of the Rebel-
lion the Doctor has gone in the face of national feeling and polit-
ical leanings, actuated by a simple, theological, and humanly
logical (would it be correct to say homological) persuasion of the
wrong of secession, and the heinousness of reljcllion. He has
come out of it thus far true to the training of the Propagandist,
which always declares equality without distinction of race or
color, and a horror of slavery. He now says, 'Call me an Aboli-
tionist, if you please, but I hold fast to my colors.' As far as
my observation goes the practice at the Propaganda is all in
favor of Northern ideas. I sometimes find even the Propa-
gandists with an antipathy to Yankees as a race, though I have
never seen it towards individuals, but the good Doctor goes in
for the Yankees now.
"I shall enclose to you one of the Bishop's circulars. His
council, of which Dr. Dunne, Dr. McMullen, and Dr. Butler are
prominent members, were strongly in favor of a very marked
attention to the wishes of the President. Dr. Butler went so far
as to tell his people, ' The President had a right to command them
to aid him by their devotion.' Thursday I went to mass at a
farmhouse four or five miles from here. An Irish family, of
course, and its head a leading Irishman in these parts; he is 'for
the Union, for the administration, though the taxes swallow his
farm,' my brother says. The neighbor with whom I went made a
visit, as well as attended to her duty, so I spent a day among my
Celtic neighbors, and everything I heard was 'for the government
as it is, and the powers that be.' " (The Life and Letters of
Eliza Allen Starr, edited by Rev. James J. McGovern, D. D., Chi-
cago, 1905, p. 191.)
"If you wish to hear good, patriotic talking, come to Chi-
cago and hear the Doctor — and he is not the only one — Dr.
BISHOP DUGGAN 185
despatched chaplains and Sisters of Mercy for tlie
spiritual and physical relief of the soldiers and was
actively interested in the various war-relief organiza-
tions of the period, notably the Sanitary Relief Cominis-
sion. Nor were examples of loyal, energetic support of
the Union wanting in the ranks of Bishop Duggan's
clergy. Father Thomas F. Kelly, founder of the parish
of St. James, became associated as chaplain with the
90th Illinois Volunteers, better knowai as the Irish
Legion, while Father Thaddeus J. Butler discharged
a similar service for the Irish Brigade. Notew^orthy in
this connection were the Avords of Dr. John McMullen,
President of the University of St. Miary of the Lake:
"If it were not that I am a priest and a man of peace,
I would be down South with my old companions who
are still alive, fighting under the Stars and Stripes for
the preservation of the Union."'*
The story of the Irish Brigade, the 23rd Illinois ^he Irish
T p -\ 1 • • T A Brigade
Iniantry, deserves more than passing notice. James A.
Mulligan, native-born American of Irish extraction, had
been graduated from the University of St. Mary of the
Lake in the same class with John McMullen, subse-
quently President of that institution. Of an interesting
and engaging personality, he possessed literary and
journalistic gifts above the common and was for a space
McMullen and Dr. Dunne are as sound as himself, only Dr. But-
ler's enthusiastic heart and demonstrative manner make a won-
derful impressions. The Doctor is really a Democrat, but not a
Copperhead, and all the shades of copper are lashed out of his
presence. His patriotism is guarded like his faith, at all points.
It would refresh you to hear his grand voice on the side of gov-
ernment, justice, and the hosts of Michael against all rebels."
(Id., p. 175.)
^McGovERN, Life of Bishop McMulle7i, p. 148.
180 THE CATIIOLK^ CIIT-RCII IX CHICAGO
(•(litt)i' of Chicago's first Catholic newspaper, the Western
Tabid ; and he enjoyed, too, in no inconsiderable degree,
the Celtic gift of oratory. In Chicago in ante-))elluni
days were several niilitarj' bodies of Jrisli Catholics, the
Shields, the Emniett, the Montgonieiy guards among
thcni; and from the personnel of these Mulligan planned
early in the Civil Wai- to recruit a regiment for the de-
fense of the Union. "Kally for the honor of llie old
Land, Rally for tlie defense of tlie New," was the
stii'i'ing summons to a meeting held in North .Market
Hall, April 20, 1861. Mulligan addressed this meeting
at which in the space of an hour and a half three liun-
dixnl and twenty-five recruits handed in their names,
this num])er growing to twelve hundred in a week's
time. The military body thus organized was tlie first
independent Illinois regiment to be accepted by the
"War De])artment, being mustered into service June 15,
18G1, as the 23rd Illinois Infantry. Among the field
and staf¥ of^cers, all of Chicago, were Col. James A.
iMulligan, Lieutenant Col. dames (^uii'k and Clia])lnin
Father Thaddeus J. Butler.
From their headquarters, "Fontenoy liarracks. " on
Polk Street, the "Irish Brigade," as the 23rd Illinois
Infantry came to be known, proceeded to St. Louis there
to be armed and equipped at the Arsenal. A short while
after it went into action at Lexington, INFissouri. Here
it bore itself with distinguished gallantry, the regi-
ment 's green flag being torn on the battlefield into pieces
which were divided among the men to prevent it from
falling into the hands of the enemy. The news of the
affair at Lexington was received in Chicago with en-
thusiasm. I. N. Arnold, one of its most conspicuous
citizens and Lincoln's friend and biographer, presented
BISHOP DUGGAN 187
to Congress the following resolutions which were adopted
by that body:
''Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives,
that the thanks of Congress be presented to Col. James A.
Mulligan and the gallant oflieers and soldiers raider his com-
mand who bravely stood by him against a greatly su]ierior
force, in his heroic defense of Lexington, Mo.
Resolved, that the 23rd Regiment Illinois Volunteers —
the Irish Brigade — in testimony of their gallantry on this occa-
sion, be authorized to bear upon their colors the word 'Lex-
ington.' "
Mustered out of service, the Irish brigade was later,
as a result of Col. Mulligan's personal appeal to
President Lincoln, reorganized and sent again into active
service. In an engagement fought at Kernstown, near
AVinchester, West Virginia, July 24, 1864, Col. Mulligan,
while leading his men in a charge, fell mortally
wounded, dying a few hours after. As his officers were
endeavoring to remove him to a place of safety the regi-
mental colors became endangered, realizing which he
gave his last command in words that were soon to ring
throughout the country, "Lay me down and save the
flag." All Chicago mourned the loss of its distinguished
citizen and matchless soldier. At his obsequies held in
St. Mary's Cathedral, his eulogy was pronounced by Dr.
McMullen, his intimate of college days and fellow-
graduate. What was less familiar to the public than
Colonel Mulligan's military achievements, his sincere
and practical Christian piety, was particularly stressed
by the speaker.
"Never did his lips which once repeated, *Thou shalt not
take the name of God in vain,' in obedience to His will, pro-
nounce the Holv Name irreverently. Latelv returnins from
188 THE CATHOLIC CHTRCIl IN CHICAGO
the toils of war, he made a short sojourn among us and took
the opportunity of attending in a special manner to the saneti-
fication of his soul. E\'ery morning, St. INIarv's, the mother
of churches in our city, received him at the Sacrifice, this old
sanctuary of his early piety, where rests all that time has
left us of that object of his veneration, Bishop Quarter. And
how can I forget his parting words, which brought to me, I
thought to him, a j^resentiment of what has happened. 'Pray
for me,' he said for parting, 'for I shall need your prayers
soon, and so farewell until this cruel war is over.' " "'
^"eio The single parish of St. ]\Iary's Avliieh Bishop
^aris es. (^^^yXqv foiiiid 111 Chicago wlien ho arrived there in May,
Henry's 1844, saw three additional ones— St. Patrick's, St.
Peter's. St. Joseph's and to some extent a fourth, the
Holy Name, grow up before his untimely death. To
these were added, under Bishop Van de Velde, St.
Louis's, St. Michael's, St. Francis of Assisi's, St.
Henry's and St. Bridget's. The first three were or-
ganized and well started on their way as independent
parishes under Bishop Van de Velde ; but of St. Henry's
and St. Bridget's, only the beginnings were made before
his Avithdrawal from the diocese. As early as 1851 a
church had been built by Father Henrj^ Fortmann,
'AxDKEAS. op. cit., 2: 190; McGovERN, Life of Bishop Mc-
Miillcn. Michael Divcrscy, prominent in German Catliolic circles-
in Chicago and one of the prime movers in the organization of
St. Michael's parish, was Lieutenant-Colonel of the "Washington
Indcjiendent Reginicnt, which was oft'ercil entire to Governor
Yates at tlie outln-cak of the Civil War ami accepted. A gran-
ite shaft, surmounted l\v the figure of a Union solditM-. w:is
erected in St. Boniface Cemetery in memory of tlie German Catli-
olics who died in their country's service during the Civil War.
"In the last war many German Catholics fought for the preser-
vation of the Union, proving thereby that the German immigrants.
are true sons of the land." Bukgler, op. cit., p. 212.
BISHOP DUGGAN 189
pastor of Gross Point or New Trier, on the site of the
present St. Henry's church at Ridge and Devon
Avenues, then outside the city limits in the suburban
district subsequently known as Rose Hill. Attended
first by the pastor of Gross Point and later by the
Redemptorist Fathers of St. Michael's church, St.
Henry's parish received its first resident priest, Decem-
ber, 1869, in the person of Father Haems.
The origin of St. Bridget's parish is to be referred st. Bridget's
to the beginning of the 'fifties, when Mass began to be
said in a private house at the south branch of the river
and Archer Avenue. Here, in the district named
Bridgeport, Irish emigrants were settling in ever-
increasing numbers. Served at first as a station from
St. Patrick's, St. Bridget's was recognized as an inde-
pendent parish in 1854, the church records beginning
with the baptism of Margaret Duffy on January 1 of
that year. The officiating priest was Father Michael
Donohue of St. Patrick's, who was succeeded in 1855 by
Father Thomas Kelly, deputed by Bishop 0 'Regan in
1855 to look after the Catholic families resident in the
districts known as Carville and Bridgeport. Father
Kelly made his residence in Carville, attending thence
the station in Bridgeport, where he built the first per-
manent St. Bridget's church, a brick structure, on the
site of the present church at Archer Avenue and Arch
Street. Having resigned his parochial duties to become
a chaplain in the Civil War, Father Kelly was suc-
ceeded in the care of St. Bridget's by Father John
Grogan, the first resident pastor of the church.*'
^ Diamond Jubilee of the Archdiocese of Chicago, W20, St.
Mary's Training School Press, Desplaines, Illinois, p. 271.
190
THE CATHOLIC CHT-IK'II IX CHICAGO
St. James's,
St. Patrick's,
South Chicar/o
The few years of Bishop 0 'Regan's residence in
Chicago witnessed the establishment of the parishes of
St. James, St. Patrick in South Chicago, and the Holy
Family. Father Damen's achievement in building up
his great parish on the AVest Side has been told above.
St. James's parish owes its creation to the zeal of Father
Thomas Kelly, who in 1855 took in hand the spiritual
care of the Catholic families resident in Carville on the
South Side. These families numbered in the beginning
some twenty, those of William Donohue, Robert AVhalen,
John Downey and Timothy Flannigan being particu-
larly identified with the birth of the new parish. Mass
for the parishioners was first celebrated in a room in
St. Agatha's Mercy Convent, Twenty-sixth Street and
Calumet Avenue. In 1858 a frame church was erected
on Prairie Avenue between Twenty-sixth and Twenty-
seventh Streets, the pastor residing at ')14 Calumet
Avenue and later at 1223 Prairie Avenue. It was not
until 1880 that a church was built on the present site,
Wabash Avenue and Twentv-iiinth Street.
St. Patrick's parish. South Chicago, now within the
limits of the metropolis, was in its origin a mission in the
village of Ainsworth attended from St. James's. It was
started in 1857 by Father Kelly, tlie foundei- of St.
James's parish, who in 1861 l)uil1 a frame church at what
is now South Chicago Avenue and Ninety-third Stri^el.
St. Pati'ick's was served from St. Thomas's, Hyde Park,
after the establishment of that parish in 1866 and not
until 1880 did it receive its first resident pastor. Father
Martin Van der Laar. In its early days the territory
of St. Patrick's embraced in addition to Ainsworth the
entire Calumet region, including the settlements kno\ni
BISHOP DT^GGAN
191
as Ironclale, Hegewisch, Windsor Park, Cheltenham and
Pullman/
Under Bishop Duggan the organization of new st. John's,
parishes went on apace, some sixteen being added to the f.^maaUatT^''
list during his tenure of the Chicago see. The year 1859 Conception
was marked by the establishment of three new parishes,
St. John's, St. Columbkille 's and the Immaculate Con-
ception. St. John's dates from June 24 of that year
when Father John Waldron, an outstanding figure
among the Catholic clergy of the day, who had been in
charge of the French church of St. Louis ever since
his ordination, began the erection of a frame church at
the corner of Clark and Old or Eighteenth Streets. The
humble house of worship had a seating capacity of three
hundred and cost $3,500. It was dedicated by Bishop
Duggan October 30, 1859. Subsequently enlarged to the
dimensions 64x66 feet, the original St. John's church,
building site included, cost the parishioners the sum of
$20,000. St. Columbkille 's at Paulina Street and West
Grand Avenue (originally Owen and later Indiana
Street) began as a mission of St. Patrick's. The bap-
tismal and marriage records of the parish open with
entries for September 18, 1859, the first pastor being
Father Patrick Ward, who was succeeded the following
year by Father Edward Keeney. Then, in 1862, came
Father "Tom" Burke, with whom the pioneer stage of
the parish is especially identified. In its early years St.
Columbkille 's was a parish of vast extent, taking in, as
it did, Cicero, Cragin and the rolling-mill district of
'Andreas, oi?. cit., 2: 401; Catholic Directory, 1867; Dia-
mond Jubilee of the Archdiocese of Chicago, 1920, p. 315.
102 Tiir CATHOLIC ciirncii in Chicago
North Chicago and reaching clown on the south to St.
Pati'iclv's and the Holy Family. The first church was
built about the beginning of the Civil War ; and from
its i)ortals, after attending the Holy Sacrifice, went
forth to the front in 18G1 a regiment made up largely
of parishioners of St. Columbkille 's. To the zealous
efforts of Father William Edwards is due the inception
of the Immaculate Conception parish, which at first took
in the wide sweep of territory lying between Division
Street and Evanston. The church, work on which was
begun in 1859, was dedicated by Bishop Duggan on
March 25, 18G0. It stood at Franklin, now North Park
Avenue, and Schiller Streets and was erected at a cost
of $17,000. Father Edwards was succeeded at his death
in 18G1 by Father Thaddeus Butler, D. D., Chaplain of
the Irish Brigade, who remained pastor of the Immacu-
late Conception for seven years.^
Groicthof The three Crerman parishes of St. Peter's, St.
plrilhesT' Joseph's and St. Michael's prospered all through the
St. Peter's 'sixties. In the fall of 1853 St. Peter's moved its pioneer
church from the original location on the south side of
"Washington Street, some hundred feet west of Wells, to
the south-west corner of Clark and Polk Streets. In
1863 a brick church was begun to be occupied the fol-
lowing year. It cost $45,000 and is still standing,
though the parish has long since dwindled into insig-
nificance before the encroachments of business and
undesirable social elements. Yet large numbers of the
devout Catholic laity- continue to frequent old St.
Peter's to share the ministry of the Franciscan
^Andiieas, op. cit., 2: 406; Diamond Jubilee of the Arch-
diocese of Chicago, 1920, pp. 341, 331, 333.
BISHOP DUGGAN 193
Fathers, who have been in charge of the church since
1878. The ])arish, which numbered only some thirty
families at its foundation and one hundred and fifty at
the time the old church was moved to Clark Street, had
grown to twelve hundred families at the period of the
Fire.9
Keeping pace with the growth of St. Peter's parish st. Joseph's
was its twin-sister, St. Joseph's parish, the two having
been organized simultaneously by Father Jung. The
little frame church, 36x65, which stood at the north-east
corner of Cass and Superior Streets on a lot purchased
from Peter Annen, served the needs of the parish until
1861. Father Jung withdrew from the Chicago diocese
in 1848 and w^as followed at St. Joseph's in succession
by Fathers Schaeffer, Plathe and Kopp. Father Kopp
served the parish for seven years, organizing during his
incumbency a number of its families into the new parish
of St. Michael's. In September, 1856, the Fathers of
the Holy Cross, established since the early 'forties at
Notre Dame, Indiana, arrived in Chicago to take over
the management of the University of St. Mary of the
Lake. St. Joseph's church, directly across from the Uni-
versity property on Chicago Avenue, was at the same
time committed to their charge. Father John B. ]Mager
'■' BuKGLER, Geschichte der Tcathol. Kirche Chicago's vnt ieson-
derer Berucksichtigung des hatholischen Deutschthums, Chicago,
1889. Burgler's list of original members of St. Peter's parish
includes the names of John Gross, Joseph Yager, John Glasen,
Andrew Schall, Andrew Schaller, Nicolas and Peter Eees, Joseph
and Anton Berg, Hubert Maas, Michael Gleinhaus, Joseph Schu-
macher, John Paul, Adam Amberg, John and Frank Busch, Casper
Pfeifer, Michael Eule and M. Haas.
194 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
at once assumed the duties of pastor with Father C. B.
Kilroy as assistant. In May. 1857. Father Mager was
succeeded by Father Andrew Tusch, who in turn was
followed by other priests of his Congregation including
Fathers Force. Schuyler and Gillespie. Father ^Mager
subsequently returned to St. Joseph's as pastor and was
apparently in charge at the time the Holy Cross
Fathers withdrew from Chicago, the up-keep of the
University having entailed financial burdens too great
for them to continue to bear. They were succeeded at
St. Joseph's by Benedictine Fathers from St. Vincent's
Abbey. Pennsylvania, who took over the parish on June
15, 1861. From the first the parishioners were drawn
to these zealous sons of St. Benedict, whose ministry- in
this venerable North Side parish has continued to our
o\vn day.
At the head of the long line of Benedictine priests
who have lent their seiwices with distinguished zeal to
the care of St. Joseph's parish was Father Louis Maiy
Fink, who took up his pastoral duties June 13, 1861.
The first of his Order to as.sist him in the pastorate was
Father ^Icinrad Jaegle. who was consecrated Abbot by
Bi.shop Duggan in St. Joseph church. July 25, 1861.
Father Fink began in 1862 the erection of a new church
in basilica style, which was occupied before the dose of
the year. It was solemnly dedicated March 19, 1865.
Abbot Boniface Zimmer having appointed Father Fink
Prior of St. Benedict's Abbey. Atchison, Kansas, the
latter was succeeded at St. Joseph's in 1868 by Father
Leander Schneer. Three years later, in 1871, Prior
Fink was named by the Holy See to the bishopric of
Leavenworth left vacant by the resignation of Bishop
BISHOP DT'GGAN 195
Miege. June 11 of that year saw his consecration by
Bishop Foley assisted by Bishops Melchers, Domenec
and Miege. The consecration took place in the new St.
Joseph's church, Chicago, of which he had formerly
been pastor and which owed its erection to his zealous
enterprise. A few months later this splendid shrine of
Catholic worship fell a prey to the Great Fire."
The story of the beginnings of St. Michael's parish St. Michael'.
has been told above." First among the pastors of St.
Michael's was Father Kopp, who attended the new
church from St. Joseph's. In November, 1852, Father
August Kramer was installed as first resident priest of
the parish, after him following in quick succession
Fathers Eusebius Kaiser, Joseph Zoegel, Anthony
Saeger and Aloysius Hatala, a Hungarian. Then after
a few months' vacancy of the pastorate came the
Redemptorist Fathers, who in January, 1860, assumed
charge of the parish.
'" BuEGLER, op. cit., 37. Burgler gives a list of original mem-
bers of St. Joseph's parish as follows: Peter Gobel, Michael
Diversey, Augiistin Gauer, Jacob Miller, Maurice Baumgarteu,
John S. Vogt, Frank Spohr, Matthias Kreiser, Mathias Miller,
Michael Iloifman, M. Laux, Jacob Raskop, Henry Gherkin,
Thomas Muinwcgen, X. Petri, Joseph Marljach, Jacob Doni, X.
Leis, N. Brisback, Wilhelm Wischmeier, Heinrich Wischmeier, J.
Leist, W. Dussmaun, X. Schinacker, X. Palm, Lorenz Bar, Peter
Berens, X. Brachtendorf, X. Schweissthal, W. Faymonville, M.
Hambach, X. Klassen, Peter Annen.
" rid. su2n-a, p. 146. Burgler, op. cit., pp. 56-62. The original
members of St. Michael's parish included \Villiam Dussmanu,
Michael Diversey, John Forsell, Xicolas Hamson, Mathias Miller,
Peter Brachtendorf, "William Faymonville, John Kuhn, Christian
Kuhn, Conrad Folz, John Schummer and Peter Scheinberg.
19G THE CATHOLIC CHT-KCII IX CHICAGO
AVith the coining of the Reclemptorists new spiritual
vigor began to manifest itself in the parish, Avhich had
been none the better for the frequent change of pastors.
Father Joseph Mueller was first Superior of the
Reclemptorist community and pastor of the church.
Father Roeseh became pastor in 1863 and Father Peter
Zinnner in 1865. Under Father Zimmer the corner-stone
was laid on November 4, 1866, of a new l)rick church,
200x80 with tower, the cost of the structure Ix'ing
$130,000. It was dedicated to divine service September
29, 1869. The fire of 1871 burnt out the interior of the
church, but the massive brick walls were left uninjured.
"What the Redemptorist ministry meant to St.
Michael's parish has been aptly sketched by a competent
authority :
"Willi the caix' of souls now lakcti in hand by the Re-
demptorist Fathers, began a new life for St. Michael's parish,
a season of real blossoming and exiDansion, a season of pros-
perity and growth. With that earnestness joined to engaging
mildness which seems to be peculiar to the sons of St. Alplion-
sus and of Blessed Clement Mary Hofbauer, the Fathers won
the confidence and love of the German Catholics; many who
had gone off to other churches, many also who had given up
church-going altogether, met again together under the Fathers
and little by little the parish waxed stronger and an active
Catholic life began to develoiJ. The irreproachable and genu-
inely priestly conduct of the Fathers who lived by themselves
in the strict retirement of the cloister and went among the
l)eople only to discharge their priestly calling was a powerful
support to them in their activities for the salvation of souls
and the welfare of the i)arish committed to tlieir hands.
Thanks to the zeal and efticiency of the very worthy order of
Our .M:)st Holy Redeemer, St. ^licliael's parish has grown
BISHOP DUGGAN 197
[1889] to be the largest and most distinguished German-Cath-
olic parish in the city of Chicago." ^-
During the first year or two of the Civil War church st.Wencesiaus
building and the organization of new parishes were very
much at a stand-still; but they again became active as
the great conflict wore down to the final issue. In 1863
St. Wenceslaus's and in 1864 St. Boniface's and Notre
Dame de Chicago came into being. At a meeting held
August 14, 1863, the Bohemian Catholics of the city,
eager for a church of their own, decided to purchase
the property of H. H. Washburn at the corner of Des-
plaincs and De Koven Streets. Some eighty-five families
having signified their readiness to contribute to the
building-fund, the church was begun on the site named
in 1865 and finished the following year. Attended for
a brief period first by Father A. Lang of the Dubuque
diocese and after him by Father F. X. Schulak, a well-
known Jesuit missionary of Moravian birth, St. Wences-
laus parish came into the hands, August 26, 1865, of
Father Joseph IMolitor, who served it with edifying and
unabated zeal down to his death in 1906.
St. Boniface's parish was started by the Benedictine st. Boniface's
Fathers for the families resident in the west end of their
parish of St. Joseph. A school-house appears to have
been built in 1864, the first Mass was said March 5, 1865,
and in the summer of that year a church of frame,
costing $7,500, was erected at Noble and Cornell Streets.
Father Philip Albrecht, a diocesan priest, was in charge
from the fall of that year to 1867, when Father J. Mar-
sehall succeeded to the pastorate. Two years later, in
1869, Father Clement Venn was named pastor, holding
^ BURGLER, op. cit., p. 32.
198 THE CATHOLIC CIIT'HCII IX CHICAGO
the post for twenty-seven j'cars, during ^\hi(•ll St.
Boniface's grew to be the largest German-speaking
];)arish in Chicago with the possible exception of St.
]\Iieliaers. In 1867 the Franciscan Sisters of Joliet were
entrust (m1 with the direction of the parish schools.^^
Kotre Dame The parish of Notrc Dame de Chicago was in reality
ncaffo j.j^^ ^^^ parish of St. Louis for French-speaking
Catholics, nearly all of whom were immigrants from
Canada. The pioneer church on Clark Street had been
moved in 1855 to the wx^st side of Sherman Street just
north of Polk. Nine years later, in 1864, a new church
w^as begun at the northwest corner of Halsted and
Congress Streets. Dedicated in March, 1865, it was
served first ])y Father A. De Montabrique and after him
by Father Cote."
Sacred Heart Ncw uuits wcrc now being added yearly to the
Catholic parishes of Chicago. In 1865 the first steps
were taken towards the establishment of the parishes of
St. Stanislaus, later the Sacred Heart, St. Thomas the
Apostle and St. Anne. That of St. Stanislaus was an
outgrowth of the Holy Family. In March, 1865, Father
Arnold Damen, S. J., built a frame school-house on
Evans now Eighteenth Street, opposite John. The
ground on w^hich it stood was the gift of j\Ir. John
Welsh, an alumnus of St. IjouIs University. In 1868
the original structure received an addition 50x40, and
in this enlarged structure, known as St. Stanislaus
chapel, the Holy Sacrifice, the first in the history of the
parish, Avas offered by Father Damen on Januai-y 1,
"BuRGLER, op. cit., p. 100; Diamond Juhihc of tin Arch-
diocese of Chicago, 1920, p. 3G1.
"Andreas, op. cit., 2: 400.
BISHOP DUGGAX 190
1869. Placed at first under the patronage of St.
Stanislaus Kostka, the Jesuit saint, the parish later
adopted the title of the Sacred Heart, under which title
a spacious church of brick was erected, 1873-75, at the
southeast corner of Nineteenth and South Peoria
Streets.
St. Thomas the Apostle's church at Kimbark Ave- st. Thomas
nue and Fifty-fifth Street is a child of St. James's, the '''''^^°*"''
founder of the latter. Father Thomas Kelly, having as
early as 1865 gathered the scattered Catholic families
of Hyde Park Station into a mission and shortly after-
wards built them a little church. In 1868 Father P. T.
Butler became pastor. St. Anne's at Fifty-fifth Street
and Wentworth Avenue likewise began its career as
a mission of St. James's about the same time as St.
Thomas the Apostle's. When in July, 1868, the latter
was organized as an independent parish, with Thirty-
eight Street as the line between it and Saint James's,
it found the mission of St. Anne's lying within its
territory. The first St. Anne 's church, a frame structure
formerly serving the purpose of a Jewish synagogue in
the down-town district, was moved to the site of the
present St. Anne's in August, 1868. A few months
later Father Thomas Leyden was installed as first
resident pastor.^^
The Annunciation parish, with church at Paulina Annunciation,
_, . 1 • » If. ^r-,r>r- ^ St. StUnislaUS
Street and \\ abansia Avenue, dates trom 1866 when
Father "Tom" Burke of St. Columbkille's established
here a mission and built a small church, which he con-
tinued to serve until the advent in 1868 of the first
^^ Diamond Jubilee of tlte Archdiocese of Cidcago, 1920, pp.
365-371.
200 THE CATHOLIC CHT'RCH IX CHICAGO
resident pastor, Father Thomas Edwards. In 1867 a
hundred and Mty Polish families, organized as the
Society of St. Stanislaus, began with episcopal appro-
bation the erection of a modest two-story frame building
serving both school and church purposes, at the comer
of Not)le and Bradley Streets. Father F. X. Schulak,
S. J., Avas in charge until the appointment in 1869 of
Father Joseph Juskiewicz as permanent pastor. The
following year came the Resurrectionists, who have con-
tinued ever since to serve zealously this great ])arish of
St. Stanislaus Kostka. Even in distant Poland the
story of the parish in said to be familiarly known and
its parochial school has the largest registration of any
in the country.^"
Nativity, In 1868 Father Michael Lyons was commissioned by
Bishop Duggan to organize a parish in the Stock-yards
district, which centered around the Transit House at
Halsted and Forty-second Streets in the Town of Lake.
Having acquired property on the north side of Thirty-
ninth Street betAveen Halsted Street and Emerald Ave-
nue, Father Lyons caused to be moved thither a building
which had been used as a sales-stable and which he
now had converted into a church. It was dedicated
April 8, 1868, by the Rev. T. J. Ilalligan, Administrator
of the diocese, under the title, it would appear, of the
Holy Angels, a title subsequently changed to that of
the Nativity. The same year that saw the establishment
of a parish in the Stock-yards district, saw the members
" For data regarding the parishes wliich follow use has been
made chiefly of the above-cited Diamond Jubilee of the Arch-
diocese of Chicago, 1D20. The Catholic Directory, 1867, lists St.
Rose's Church, North Franklin near Chicago Avenue.
BISHOP DUGGAN 201
of the German parish of St. Francis of Assisi beginning
to worship in the splendid new edifice of brick erected by
them at the southeast corner of Twelftli Street and New-
berry Avenue. Their old church of frame at Clinton and
Mather Streets thereupon began, under the name of
St. Paul, to serve the needs of tlie English-speaking
Catholics of the vicinity with Father, or, as he was
more popularly known, Dr. John MeJMullen in charge.
The church and other parish buildings of St. Paul's
were all swept way in the fire of 1871 and the parish,
which counted over a thousand families in 1866, w^as
thereupon discontinued.
Two West Side parishes, St. Jarlath's and St. st.jariath's,
Stephen's, date from 1869. The westernmost section of '^'- '^''^^''^"'*
St. Patrick's parish having been laid out in that year
as a separate parish w^as given the name St. Aloysius,
changed a year later to that of St. Jarlath. A frame
church with seating capacity of three hundred and fifty
was built at the comer of Hermitage Avenue and
West Jackson Street and at first served from St.
Patrick's, Father J. J. Grogan being the first attending
priest and subsequently the first resident pastor. It was
Father Grogan who named the parish for St. Jarlath
as a tribute to his alma mater, St. Jarlath's College in
Tuam, Ireland. Established in the same year as St.
Jarlath's was St. Stephen's parish, its founder being
Father Stephen Barrett who built his church on North
Sangamon Street. Finally, in February, 1870, the be-
ginnings were made of the parish of St. John Nepo-
mucene, the second for the Catholic Bohemians of
Chicago. Property was bought at Twenty-fifth and
Portland (now Princeton) Streets, and steps were taken
202
TIIK CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
Catholic
Sisterhoods
lielioious of
Sacred Heart
towards the erection of a frame church, ^vl^K•h was
completed in 1871, Father W. Cheka arriving from
Moravia to assume the duties of pastor.
All in all, twenty-eight parishes, including St.
Thomas's in Hyde Park, St. Patrick's in South Chicago
and St. Henry's in Rose Hill, had been established in
Chicago at the time when the great fire of 1871 spread
the trail of destruction that was to mark a turning-
point in the religious no less than in the civic history of
Chicago.
To the Catholic sisterhoods more than any other
human agency is due the upbuilding of Chicago's system
of Catholic parochial schools to its present splendid
development. They were early in the field, as we have
seen, the Sisters of Mercy leading the van in the late
'forties. The latter opened girls' free schools succes-
sively in St. Mary's, the Holy Name, and St. Patrick's
parishes. In 1856 the Sisters of the Holy Cross were
conducting schools for "German and English girls,"
while at the same time similar schools for boys were
being taught by Brothers of the Holy Cross in various
parishes of the city.^"
In August, 1858, IMadame Galway, with ten other
Religious of the Sacred Heart arrived in Chicago at
the invitation of Bishop 0 'Regan and subsequently
of Bishop Duggan. The community resided first on
Wabash Avenue and later at Rush and Illinois
Streets, where they conducted a school for girls.
Madame Galway, having acquired twelve acres on
Taylor Street on the West Side, within the limits of
the new Jesuit ])ai'ish of the Holy Family, built there
"Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 1857.
BISHOP DUGGAN
203
a convent, which was first occupied by the nuns on
August 20, 1860. In the fall of the same year the frame
building on the North Side formerly occupied by the
nuns was moved to the northwest corner of Taylor and
Lytle Streets and in it was opened a "free-school" for
the girls of the Holy Family parish. In 186-1: Madame
Galway enlarged the convent building, establishing in
it an academy and boarding-school for girls. In 1866
a brick building with capacity for 1000 children was
erected for the ''free" or parochial school at Taylor
and Lytle Streets.^**
In 1864 the Sisters of Mercy were engaged as teach-
ers of the girls' schools of St. Mary's and St. John's,
while the Sisters of Notre Dame were similarly engaged
in St. Michael's, the Sisters of Charity in the Holy
Name and the Sisters of Loretto in St. Patrick's. The
Benedictine Sisters were in 1866 teaching in the parish
schools of St. Joseph's, while in the same year the
Sisters of Mercy took in charge both the boys' and
girls' schools of the new parish of St. James.^^
In 1867 a second parish school for girls was organ- sisters of
ized in the Holy Family parish, with the Sisters of „,g Blessed
Charity of the Blessed Virgin, a Dubuque foundation, yirgin
in charge. In February of that year Sister ]\Iary
Margaret, Superioress of the Davenport convent of the
Sisterhood, wrote to Father Donaghoe, to whose enter-
prise the creation of the Sisterhood was largeh' due :
"Since I wrote the above Father Damen has been here.
He wants our Sisters, six or nine, to teach a parochial school
"^ Andreas, op. cit., 3 : 774.
^^ Catholic Directory, 1864- 1866; Mixogue, Loretto: Annals
of the Century, 183.
20-t TIIK CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
in Chicago. Pie will provide for them a house I'urnished, an
oratory and daily Mass, will pay two hundred and tifty
dollars a year to each Sister, and if Ihcy teach nmsic. em-
broidery or painting, the income will be their own. Father
Damen will do all he can for them. He would be glad to get
nine Sisters, but is willing to take six for a beginning. He
has an understanding with the Bishop about it. Now, dear
Father, think of it, and I hope God will direct you. I told
Father Damen I would write you all these details. I will
get all the Sisters to say the Thirty Days' Prayer for youi-
intention. "Will you tell me what you think of it when yuu
write? Father Damen wrote to you on this subject some time
ago. I will be glad to hear what you will say to his proposi-
tion; I hope it will succeed." -"
Thoiiijli Father Donaghoc was eager to seize tills
oppoi'tiinity of introducing liis Sisters into the great
field for Catholic education that lay white to the
harvest in the most prosperous city of the ^Middle West,
the step could not be taken without some delay. The
following July found Father Damen still awaiting the
Sisters anxiously.
"We would like to get nine Sisters," he writes to Fathei"
Donaghoc, "but try to send three or four at once, if possible,
and let them be good teachers so as to make a good impression,
for the first impression is generally the lasting one. I need not
say that I have the approbation of our good Bishop."'
July 10 Father Donaghoc conveyed to Sister ^Mary
^Margaret in Davenport the glad tidings that permission
to despatch Sisters to Cliicago liad ])eon ol)taincd from
-"In th( Early Days. Pages from the Annals of the History
of Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1833-1837, St.
Louis, 1912, p. 200.
BISHOP DUGGAN 205
Bishop Smyth of Dubuque, the ecclesiastical Superior
of their community.
"I have written by this post to Father Damen to say
that I have obtained from the Right Rev. Bishop ample lib-
erty to send him Sisters. So Chicago is ours, thank God."
In August, 1867, Sister Mary Agatha, with six nuns
began the educational work of the Sisters of Charity,
B. V. M., in the Holy Family parish. Pending the
ei'eeiion of St. Aloysius school and convent on Maxwell
Street a short distance west of Jefferson, the Sisters
occupied a house at the corner of Halsted and K?'amer
Streets. St. Stanislaus' School for boys and girls. A\dthin
the limits of the future Sacred Heart parish, was also
entrusted by Father Damen to their care, so that by
1871 as many as 1250 children were being educated
under their direction.
In 1867 came the Franciscan Sisters, who were to
be engaged in the parish-schools of St. Boniface's and
St. Francis of Assisi's. Schools were opened in 1868 in
St. Columbkille 's parish, with Sisters of Charity of St.
Vincent in charge, while in the same year the Dominican
Sisters of the Sinsinawa foundation took in hand the
schools of the Immaculate Conception. In 1870 Sisters
of Charity were conducting the Holy Name schools and
Sisters of Charity B. V. M., those of St. Stanislaus,
subsequently the Sacred Heart. Of the Catholic paro-
chial schools at this period, those of the Holy Family
had by far the largest enrollment. Attending the girls'
schools of St. Aloysius and the Sacred Heart were 850
and 853 pupils respectively, while the boys' school under
the management of Father Andrew O'Neil, S.J. and
Brother Thomas O'Neil, S. J., assisted by twenty-three
206 THE CATHOLIC CHURCFI IX CHICAGO
luy-tcaclieis. iniiiil)('r('(l over 2000 i)Ui)ils. All in all
there were in the Fall of 1871 twenty-one parochial
schools in Chicago, with an attendance of nearly 10,000
children, the entire burden of expenses of the system
resting entirely on the Catholic clergy and laity of the
city.
As to the Catholic sisterhoods of Chicago they num-
bered eleven in 1871, being in the approximate order of
their establishment in the city the Sisters of Mercy,
Religious of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of Charity of St.
Vincent de Paul, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Sisters
of St. Benedict, Sisters of Loretto, Notre Dame Sisters,
Sisters of St. Francis, Sisters of St. Joseph, Sisters of
St. Dominic, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin,
and Poor Handmaids of Christ.-^
To those pioneer institutions of Catholic Chicago,
the Orphan Asylum and Mercy Hospital, other institu-
tions of a charitable and philanthropic character were
added, especially in the 'sixties.
Eouseofthe Tj^^ ^^,^^ j,^^^^^^ ^^ ^j^^ Sistcrs of the Good Shepherd
Good •/-,!• 1 • • • • 1 J?
Shepherd 1^^ Chicago owcd its origiii to the energetic zeal oi
Rev. Dr. John ]\Ic]Mullen. AVith three hundred dollars
borrowed from his brother James, a resident of Chicago,
he rented a house on Pierce Street, later Boston Avenue,
and with the approval of Bishop Duggan invited the Sis-
ters of the Good Shepherd of St. Louis to send some of
their number to open therein a ]\ragdalen Asylum. The
three Sisters that came in 1859 in answer to tlic invita-
tion were at once charged with Ihe care of seven women
inmates recently i)ardoned out of the Bridewell. In his
-' The Sisters of the Holy Cross were established in the city
diniiii; the period 1856-1861.
BISHOP DUGGAN 207
efforts to finance the new venture, Father McMullen
visited St. Louis and other cities of the Middle West
where he made personal appeals for aid, and in Chicago
itself he was seen to beg on behalf of the Sisters from
door to door, on occasion even purchasing groceries and
carrying them in a basket to the convent when its
little commuunity was hard pressed for the necessaries
of life. In 1860 better quarters for the institution, with
room for thirty inmates, were found on Franklin Street
on the South Side. Here the asylum has been established
only a short time when it was removed to Market Street
on the North Side. A frame building, which Dr. Mc-
Mullen had started to erect at the new location Avas
only half completed when a fire of incendiary origin
reduced it to ashes ; but the zealous priest, not dis-
couraged by this set-back, proceeded thereupon to build
a substantial structure of brick, which was to be the
house of the Magdalen Asylum until it in turn fell a
prey to the great conflagration of 1871. The Sisters of
the Good Shepherd all these years were conducting the
]\Iagdalen Asylum only, and it was not until 1866 that
they took in hand a Reformatory and Industrial School
for girls."^
In 1866 Brother Bonaventura Thelen, of the Alexian Aiexian
Brothers, arrived in Chicago. A letter of approval of
his projected work signed under date of March 31, 1866,
by Bishop Duggan designated him as a * ' professed mem-
ber of the Order of St. Alexius, founded for the benefit
of the aged, poor and sick, being commissioned by his
Superior to travel to America in order to extend the
beneficial labors of his Order also to this country."
Brothers'
Hospital
"- McGovERN, Life of Bishop McMullcn, pp. 128-132.
'JOS Tin; ("ATiioi.U" ciii'iv'cii in ciiu-aco
W'ilhiii six moiillis ho h;ul, with the assistance dI" a
layiuaii. Mr. WischmrycM-, cslahlishcd Si. .Mar\'s Hos-
pital with a caiiarity of riL>-ht beds at Norlli Dearborn
and SchdU'r Streets. I'.rother I '.onax ent lira "s little eoiii-
iiumitN" soon nuinluM'iHl livi' brothers and thrt-e novices
and in IS(iS tlu> Ilos])ilal fouiul more spaeions (luartors
at r)4(; .\oith l''ranUlin Stinn-t. in IS!)'.) the institution
ehaniiVil its name ti> that of .\le\ian lirdt lu'rs" llos-
pilal.-'
s I.. lo, .■,,'>:< I,, |m;j.; ^, j„s^>ph"s Hospital was opriied b\ the
llos,<ilal . III.
Sisters of Charily i>l' St. N'ineent in temporary ([uarters
at niversey A\eiuu> and (Ireen l>a\" Koad. wliieli were
soon exehaiiiied I'or a eommodioiis bnildiiiii' erected at
Sophia, now (iartield .\\tMiiie. and Hurley Streets. With
a capacity o\' only thirty patients in the be^-iiininn'. the
Hospital was enabled al'ler occiipxiui;' its new (piarters
to e\t(Mid I'oiisiderably the ranij:e of its biMuwoh'iit serv-
ices. It is an int(M'(>stinu: t'ircumstanci^ that the two
Catholic hospitals ol" Chicaii'o. .Mercy and St. dosi'ph's,
were both locat(>d ontsidt' the area raxaijed by the
l-'ire ol' 1S71 and wi're thus enabled to contiiuu' llieir
charitable ministrations ihrouii'h that memorabU' crisis.
(;,T„„,M In ISl),") the Ceriuan Catholics ol' Chieaii:o purehaseil
lirphan )^,|^ acivs of laiul wltli a small house as a liome i'or their
.l,v;//i/iii.
y.'.i.sv /Zi// orphans. 'Tlu' property was located at l\osi> Hill, then
lyinii- b(\\ond the mtrlheru line t)l' the city but now well
within the city limits. Tlie tirsl children wtM'e received
'\o\(Miiber I. IStili. and wei>' cared for by a .Mr. 'rraul'tler
and his wife. In lS()7-(iS a buildinir was ereeti'd at a
et)st ol" $S,l)l)l). the t*ont ractor. a .Mr. Mberlshanser, lend-
-'Anokk.xs, op. cit., 12: 5I>7. Souvoiir of tlu <li>Jil(n Jiihilif
of Hit- Ahwiau lirothcrs at Cliirogo, liU6.
lUSiKJI' DIGGAN 209
iu'^ his services gratis. The pooi' ilandinaids of (,'hi'ist
were subsequently called from J^'oii Wayne by Father
Fischer, President of the Asylum Jjoai'd, to take charge
of the institution. The credit of having been the founder
of the Asylum belongs to Father Holzer, a Redemp-
torist, who called the first meeting of German Catholics
at which steps were taken to estal)lish it and whose
vigilant cntcr])ris(' ])usli('d llir ])r()ject forward to suc-
cess.'*
All in all, the hospitals and asylums of Catholic
Chicago in 3871 nuiiihei-ed nine, Mercy Hospital on the
South Side, St. Joseph's and the Alexian Brothers'
Hospitals on the North Side, the jMagdalen Asylum on
North Market Street, St. Joseph's Oi-phan Asylum at
State and Sui)erio]', the (icnnan Orphan Asylum in
Rose Hill, Chicago Reform and Industi'ial School in
Bridgeport (conducted 1)\' the Christian lii'othci's). the
House of Providence on Huron Street, and the House
of Pr-ovidcnce on Wabash Avenue.
Higher education for the Catholic voung women of !''>«"*'
. ' . Ladies'
Chicago began in 184G with the opening by the Sisters Academics
of Mercy of St. Xavier's Academy. Ten years later the
same Sisters established the branch Academy of St.
Agatha at Rio Grande, now Twenty-sixth Street, and
Calumet Avenue, a boarding-school with an average
attendance in its opening year of fifty-tw^o i)ui)ils. St.
Paul's select-school for girls was opened in 1850, also
by the Sisters of Mercy, in a frame building adjoining
St. Xavier's Academy. In 1858 the Sisters of Charity
i>j)ened the Academy of the Holy Name in a small
building on Huron Street near State. The building
"BURGLER, op. cit.
210 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
subsequently occupied by the Academy was swept away
in the Fire of 1871, the Academy being thereupon dis-
continued.-'' In 1860 the Religious of the Sacred Heart
under Mother Galway opened an Academy on "West
Taylor Street, while in 1867 the Benedictine Sisters
added still further to the number of Catholic high-
schools for girls by establishing St. Joseph's Academy
on Chicago Avenue for day-scholars and boarders.
Vniversity Thc development of higher education for the Cath-
"of the Lake ^^^^ youiig mcii of early Chicago is identified, we need
not say here, with the University of St. J\Iary of the
Lake. Of the fortunes of that venerable institution
during the 'fifties and 'sixties we shall, accordingly,
speak with some detail. The beginnings of the Univer-
sitj^ under Bishop Quarter have been sketched above.
Bishop Van de Velde, as a man of scholarly attainment
and much ripe experience as an educator, was deeply
interested in thc progress of the institution and made
every effort to maintain its academic standards at a
high level. Difficulties, however, apparently over matters
of business, arose between the Bishop and the pastors
of Holy Name Church, all of whom were connected
either as officials or professors with the . University.
Father Kinsella, head pastor of the Holy Name, had
been President of the University since its inception,
as also professor of dogmatic theology and sacred scrip-
ture, while of his assistants. Father Clowry Avas secre-
tary of the board of trustees and Fathers Breen and
Hocy were on the teaching staff. To remove the dangers
that now began to threaten the moderate measure of
prosperity' which the University had hitherto enjoyed,
'Andreas, History of Chicago, 2: 404.
BISHOP DUGGAN
211
Bishop Van dc Velde looked to a change of management.
He accordingly visited Notre Dame University in 1852
to solicit the Fathers of the Holy Cross to assume charge
of the University. This well-known Congregation had
been established by the venerable Father Edward Sorin,
a Frenchman, near Sonth Bend, Indiana, in the early
'forties, and Notre Dame University, the work of his
hands, had already won for itself a place of distinction
in the Catholic educational life of the country. But
the Congregation over which he presided was still in
its merest infancy and for the moment at least in no
position to extend its field of operations. Bishop Van
de Velde 's offer was consequently declined.
Under Bishop 0 'Regan, the controversy with the Fathers
pastors of the Holy Name, which he had inherited from ^^iJq
his predecessor, was brought to a close by the resignation
of the latter from their parochial charges in January,
1855, and their withdrawal from the diocese.-*^ Bishop
0 'Regan now reopened negotiations with the Fathers
of the Holy Cross, pending which Father Matthew
Dillon was in charge of the University, assisted by
Fathers McLaughlin, Hurley and Aylward. A proposal
made by the Bishop to the Fathers of the Holy Cross
to sell them the University and its belongings for
$60,000 payable in twelve installments of $5,000 each
without interest met at first with favor from the Fathers
ross
in charge,
1856-1S61
-''''At the request of the Bishop, Fathers KinscUa, Clowry,
Breen and Hoey resigned in January, 1855, their charge as priests
of the Holy Name and severed their connection with the Uni-
versity. All four went East and offered their services, three to
the Bishop of New York and one to the Bishop of Trenton. They
were accepted and in a short time were assigned to positions of
prominence." Illinois Catholic Historical Eevieiv, 2: 148.
212 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
])ut \vas evcntuiilly declined. An invitation to take over
the University wliich the Bishop extended to the Jesuits
of St. Louis "was likewise declined. Finally, as the result
of a pei'sonal visit made to Notre Dame in 1856, Bishop
0 'Regan prevailed upon the Holy Cross Fathers to take
a fifty-year lease on the University property and build-
ings at an animal rental of $2100. The lease was signed
August 4, 1S5G. The Fathei's stipulated, it would ap-
pear, to conduct a preparatory day-school only and not
an institution of collegiate or university grade. With
them also came to Chicago in the sunnner of 1856 a
num])cr of Brothers and Sisters of the Holy Cross to
conduct schools in St. Joseph's and other })arishes of
the city. The Brothers took over the management of
the boA's' schools of St. Joseph's, St. Patrick's and St.
Mary's parishes; while the Sisters taught the girls of
St. Joseph's parish, and opened an industrial school in
the University building and also a select school for girls
in a l)rick building which they rented at the northwest
corner of Chicago Avenue and Cass Street.
jvithdraivai Though profcsscdly only a preparatory school of
of Fathers high-school grade, the University still continued to give
of the ^ o ...
Holy Cross the title of President to its princii)al officer. Father
(t. B. Kilroy was the first President during the period
the Congregation of the Holy Cross was in charge of
the University; and he was succeeded by Fathers
Shortis, Patrick Dillon, James Dillon and Neil Gillespie.
In 1857 there were thirty-five students in attendance
at the University so-called; by the end of 1859 this
number had risen to 120. But the spectre of financial
distress hovered at all times over the institution. The
panic of 1857 added notably to the embarrassment of
the Fathers. A collection ordered by Bishop 0 'Regan
BISHOP DUGGAN
21^
in all the churches of the city towards helping them to
pay their rent, through which means he hoped to
realize at least a thousand dollars, brought only sixty.
Under his successor, Bishop Duggan, the Fathers of the
Holy Cross, feeling themselves no longer able to main-
tain the unequal struggle, resolved to discontinue their
educational and parochial labors in Chicago, where their
zeal had merited general commendation, and return to
Notre Dame. This they did at the close of the scholastic
session 1860-61, the Brothers and Sisters of the Holy
Cross also withdrawing from the city at the same time.
The Sisters especially had achieved great popularity
during their stay in Chicago, as was witnessed by the
demonstrations of sympathy made at their departure.
They were escorted to the depot by the Montgomery
Guards with full band under command of Capt. Gleeson,
who at the time was preparing to enter the Union service
with Col. Mulligan."
Two distinct phases had now marked the career of
the University of St. Mary of the Lake, one of ten years
under the presidency of Father Kinsella, and one of five
years under the managment of the Congregation of the
Holy Cross. It was now to enter on a third and final
phase of five years' duration. With the appointment
early in 1861 of Rev. Dr. John McMullen as President,
a second spring appeared to dawn on the sorely tried
institution.
To a friend in Rome Dr. McMullen wrote on Janu-
ary 25, 1862:
"I have four lay-professors associated with me in carry-
ing on the University. We have about 110 students, thirty-
three are boarding in the place. The university is doing bet-
Dr. John
McMullen,
President of
the University
^''Illinois Catholic Jlistorical Beview, 2: 149.
214 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
ter than I expected at first and still I am not without many
dilliculties, considering tliat I had to make great imi^rove-
ments in order to open it with decency becoming its name. I
have some of the ablest lay professors in the West teaching
for me."
The University buildings at this period comprised
the original frame structure dating from Bishop Quar-
ter's time and a two-story edifice of brick on the Chi-
cago Avenue side of the property which included the
entire square bounded by Chicago Avenue, State, Supe-
rior and Cass Streets. To provide quarters adequate
to the increasing number of the students, a new and
spacious building of brick was planned, the corner-
stone being laid by Bishop Duggan on July 4, 1863.
Occupied ])y the students February 1, 1864, the new
building, of which only the south wing was actually
erected, at once attracted public notice as a type of the
best school-construction of the day. "There is no build-
ing for educational purposes in the state." commented
one of the local prints, "better arranged or more appro-
priately fitted out. ' '-^
To make the University over which he presided such
in reality as well as in name became now the aml)ition
of Ur. McMullen. By the l)oginning of tlic session 1863-
1864 the institution had been organized on a strictly
university l)asis, having affiliated to it i)rofessional
schools of law, medicine and divinity. Among the in-
structors in law were Judges Booth, Wilson and Good-
rich, while the noted physician. Dr. Daniel Bi'ainard,
filled the post of dean of the staff of medicine. The
school of medicine was indeed none other than the pio-
neer institution of medical instruction in Chicago, Kush
=' Chicago Tribune, January 28, 1S64.
BISHOP DUGGAN 215
Medical College, in the building of which, a few blocks
distant from the University, all medical classes were con-
ducted. The Rector of the Theological Department or
Seminary was Father James McGovern, D. D., who also
lectured on Holy Scripture and Ecclesiastical History.
Dr. McMullen and later Father P. W. Riordan, the
future Archbishop of San Francisco, occupied the chair
of Dogmatic Theology and Father T. J. Butler that of
Moral Theology, while Father Roles was spiritual di-
rector of the seminarians. In the undergraduate depart-
ment or School of Arts and Sciences instruction was
imparted by Drs. McMullen and McGovern, assisted by
a numerous staff of lay-professors.-^
Lending prestige to the University was the publica-
tion under its auspices of "the Month," a Catholic
monthly magazine established by Dr. McMullen, Janu-
ary 1, 1865, under the editorship of Mr. Peter Foote of
the University staff. It was at the time one of the few
Catholic periodicals of the kind in the United States,
if not the only one, Brownson's Review having been
discontinued a few months before. A number of con-
tributions from the pen of Dr. ]\IcMullen appeared in
its pages ; but it ran only one year, lack of patronage
making it necessary to suspend publication.^^
Though destined apparently to carry on wath sue- The
cess the cause of Catholic education in the Middle AVest, '^"'^y*'^?/
closed,
the University of St. Mary of the Lake succumbed in isee
-" Andreas, History of Chicago, 1 : 298.
^" McGovern, Life of Bishop McMullen. According to An-
DREAS, op. cit., 2: 405, Father Roles, while pastor of the Holy
Name Church, 1862-1868, edited and published the first Catholic
illustrated Sunday-school paper in the city. The Sunday School
Messenger of the Holy Family Parish, Chicago, dates from 1867.
216 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
the end to the financial embarrassment under which it
had had to struggle steadily from its birth. AVith dra-
matic suddenness it ek)sed its doors early in 1866.
Though collections made by Dr. Mc^MuHen in the par-
ishes of the diocese netted $3,000, there remained obli-
gations amounting to $6,000 that apparently could not
be met. The indefatigable Doctor, than whom no one
could have battled more perseveringly to keep the insti-
tution alive, broke down and wept as he disclosed to the
faculty the financial straits of the University and its
inability under the circumstances to continue its work.
The Seminary was maintained until 1868 when it was
closed by Bishop Duggan. The University buildings
were thereupon made to house the Orphan Asylum, with
the Sisters of St. Joseph in charge."'
If the noble-hearted Dr. ]Mc^Iullen. Avhose services
to religion and education the Holy See was later to rec-
ognize by naming him the first incumbent of the See of
Davenport had thus to taste the l)itterness of failure in
the most cherished of his plans, it was not for lack of
vision of the magnificence of the field which Chicago
offered for a Catholic institution of I'niversity type.
"Of all places," he declared, "the great city of Chicago
was and is the place for such an institution. It is the
heai-t of the AVest, the most enterprising, the most pro-
gressive, the most American of all the geographical divi-
sions of our grand Ke})uljlic, and with its vast Catholic
po])u]ation it ought to have lifted up the torch for all
of us."
"I shall send you some copies of a child's paper which Father
Roles is getting up to come out every mouth I do not think
there is a paper of this sort for children in the country." Mc-
GOVERN, Life and Letters of Eliza Allen Starr, p. 191.
'" McGovERN, Life of BisJtop McMidlen.
BISHOP DUGGAN 217
In the 'sixties education of a grade higher than that christian
of the grammar school began to be supplied to the ^''others
Catholic boys of Chicago by the Brothers of the Chris-
tian Schools, who came to the city in 18G1. Their
Academy at 99 East Van Buren Street offered the ad-
vantages of a business and commercial education, which
was later brought within the reach of the West Side
boys by the establishment of St. Patrick's Academy.
At a period beyond the limits of this narrative they
were to found the De La Salle Institute on the South
Side, which has achieved a success known to all in the
cause of Christian education.^"
To offer to the Catholic youth of Chicago oppor- st.iynatius
tunities for a classical education, the Jesuits opened
St. Ignatius College on West Twelfth Street. Classes
were first held September 5, 1870. A spacious and im-
posing structure of brick, four stories in height and
costing over $200,000, housed the institution, which owed
its origin chiefly to the zealous enterprise of the well-
known Jesuit missionary. Father Arnold Damen. As
the only institution in Chicago offering instruction in
the classics at the hands of professional Catholic edu-
cators, it soon won for itself a place of distinction in
the Catholic educational life of the city. Founded at
a time when the University of St. Mary of the Lake
had but lately closed its doors, St. Ignatius College
College
^- Tlie first school in Chicago taught by the Christian Brothers
was St. Patrick's parish-school for boys. Later they took charge
of St. Mary's School. "During this month (on the 15th) Chris-
tian Brothers took possession of the new school on Van Buren
and 4th Avenue, preparatory to the opening of it for the children
of the parish on the 2nd of September, 1868." Note in Bap-
tismal Begister, St. Mary's Church, Chicago.
218 THE CATHOLIC CIIT-RCII IX CHICAGO
Locaiiic the timely successor of that venerable institution
in dispensing to the youth of Cliicago the advantages
of higher Catholic education.
The latlci' days of Bishop Duggan's administration
Avere clouded by the unfortunate controversies that arose
between him and certain inlhuMitial members of his
clergy. Only after a long-drawn out and painful jxM'iod
of misunderstanding and dissension was the variable-
ness of i)urpose which the Bishop betrayed in his man-
agement of affairs recogni/.ed as a i^remonitory stage of
complete mental collapse. Suspicion of the true nature
of the malady having been aroused after the prelate's
return to Chicago from the Second Council of Baltimore
in 1866, he was advised by his physician to seek relaxa-
tion in a European trip. A stay at Carlsbad in Austria
failed to produce the hoped-for results and the Bishop
returned unimproved to the United States, where the
advance of his disease made it necessary to confine him.
He was accordingly sent to an institution conducted by
the Sisters of Charity on the outskirts of St. Louis,
where he spent the remainder of his days, dying as late
as 1899.-^^^
The tragic denouement of Bishop Duggan's episcopal
career, so rich in its early days in achievement for the
diocese of Chicago, was deeply deplored by clergy and
laity alike and by a sort of spontaneous accord it was
felt on all sides that the recent unhappy controversies
should be suffered to lapse into well-deserved oblivion.
"Shea, Ilistory of the Catholic Church in the United States;
McGovERN, Catholic Church in Chicago, 1W--210; McGovekn, Life
of Bishop McMullcn.
' iii^ .'iiivV /0K?[
PUBLIC LIBRARY ^
Rt. Rev. Tlioinas Foley, fiftli Bishop (Coadjutor Bislioj) and Adminis-
trator) of the J^iocese of Cliieago (1<S7()-1S79). A native of Baltimore in
Maryland, ho was the first Bishop of Chicago born in America. His
episcopate was marked by the great Fire of 1871 and the critical period
conse(|uent thereon, through which he conducted the Church in Ciiicago
with the utmost charity and resourcefulness, laying anew the foundations
on which was to be reared the splendid fabric of Catholicism in that city
todav. His death in the full tide of pastoral achievement occurred on
February 19, 1879.
CHAPTER IX
BISHOP FOLEY AND THE FIRE OF 1871
of Chicago
On March 10, 1870, Bishop Thomas Folev was in- Bfe^opFoz.y,
" Administrator
stalled in the church of the Holy Name, the pro-Cathe- ^^j^g
dral, as successor to Bishop Duggan in the see of Chi- ^^°^f^^
cago, amid very cordial manifestations of good-will and
satisfaction on the part of the clergy and laity of the
city. Bishop Foley was a native of Baltimore, where he
was born of immigrant Irish parents, March 6, 1822. A
graduate with the degree of A. B. from St. Mary's Col-
lege. Baltimore, at the early age of eighteen, a priest at
twenty-four, pastor for twenty-one years at the Balti-
more Cathedral, and in turn Chancellor, Vicar-General
and Administrator of the diocese of Baltimore, he had
discharged with satisfaction the various important du-
ties committed to him and with a very distinguished
record of clear judgment, scholarship and experience
in church affairs thus to his credit, gave promise of fill-
ing still higher ecclesiastical positions with eminent suc-
cess. So it was that the Holy See turned to him as one
who could be trusted to take up and wield with delicacy
and tact to the edification of all the reins of administra-
tion that had fallen from the hands of Bishop Duggan.
Having in November, 1869, been appointed Bishop of
Pergamus in partihus infidelium, Coadjutor-Bishop and
Administrator of the Diocese of Chicago cum jure suces-
sionis, he was consecrated February 27, 1870, in the
219
220 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX CHICAGO
Cathedral of IJallimore. by Pjishop ]\IcCloskcy of Louis-
ville.
"Peace be to you" was the text of the serinon which
Bishop Foley addressed to the congregation that gath-
ered in the pro-Cathedral of the Holy Name on the
occasion of his installation ; and a notable serinon it Avas,
all aglow with exquisite charity and priestly zeal and
revealing beyond mistake in its eloquent sentences the
great heart and superior mind of the man who had come
to direct the destinies of the Catholic church in Chicago.
"Now I wish again to repeat the words of our Lord and
Savior, may his grace abide with you. I hope that in the
power of God this diocese which already holds so high a place,
which has so vast a population and is destined if not to be the
first at least to be the second in the country ; this diocese which
has such vast material wealth and such a number of souls
within its limits, shall grow in grace and power. This shall
claim my careful attention and Avhile I live and am with you,
whatever I can do shall be freely, entirely and olieerfully
given to Chicago."
The pre-eminent fitness of Bishop Foley for the posi-
tion to which he had been called was amply demon-
strated as his episcopate ran its course. New ])arishes
were organi/ced and churches built, new institutions of
charity and benevolence sprang up on every side, wliile
an atmosphere of Christian kindliness and forbearance
spread out from the great-hearted prelate and settled
over the entire diocese.
Fireofisri Bishop Foley was in the first flush of his zeal for the
restoration of all things in Christ when a disaster of
overwhelming proportions visited the chief city of his
diocese. From 10 o'clock on Sunday evening, October
9, LS71, to G o'clock on the evening of the following day,
BISHOP FOLEY AND THE FIRE OF 1871 221
a span of only twenty-one hours, a fire of quite uncon-
trollable character spread over Chicago, sweeping away
the entire business district of the city and thousands of
residences and leaving in its wake of destruction a loss
in buildings, merchandise and household effects esti-
mated at $200,000,000. A great part of the material
equipment of the Catholic Church in Chicago in
churches, schools and institutions, representing years of
self-sacrificing toil and generosity on the part of clergy
and laity, was involved in the common disaster. St.
Paul's Church and parish buildings, at Clinton and
Mather, distant only a few blocks from the starting-
point of the fire, soon fell before the advancing flames.
As the conflagration pursued its undisputed march to-
wards the northern limits of the city, w^ere destroyed
St. Louis's Church and Parsonage on Sherraan Street,
the Christian Brothers' Academy on Van Buren Street,
the Convent and Schools of the Sisters of Mercy on
Wabash Avenue, St. Mary's Cathedral, the original St.
Mary's of frame built by Father St. Cyr, the Bishop's
residence at ^lichigan Avenue and Madison Street, the
Holy Name Church, the House of Providence, the Acad-
emy of the Sisters of Charity, St. Joseph's Orphan
Asylum, formerly the University of St. ]\Iary of the
Lake, the Christian Brothers' Parochial School, the Ben-
edictine Convent, St. Joseph's Church at Chicago Ave-
nue and Cass Street, the Magdalen Asylum, the Church
of the Immaculate Conception, and St. Michael's Church
with schools and other parish buildings attached to these
churches. The total loss in Catholic church property
was estimated at $1,000,000.
For the moment Chicago stood dazed and even para-
Ivzed at the extent of the calamity ; but for the moment
222 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ix Chicago
only. Presently the indoniitaljle si)ii'it of tlie metropolis
asserted itself and j^lans for a greater, a richer, a more
splendid Chicago were already taking shape in the minds
of its citizens before the last embers of the great con-
flagration had smouldered away. Bishop Foley was
absent on a confirmation-trip to Champaign, Illinois, on
the fateful Sunday and ]Monday of the fire; and he
returned to Chicago only to find the splendid shrines
of Avorship and monuments of Christian charit}' reared
under his predecessors levelled to the ground, thousands
of Catholic families homeless and impoverished and a
condition of acute distress among a large part of his
flock that called for instant relief. "With characteristic
courage he set himself to the task in hand. Food, cloth-
ing and money with which to relieve the urgent needs
of the victims of the fire were not to be had in sufficient
quantity at home ; and appeals were therefore made to
the Catholics of the country. To Eliza Allen Starr, the
distinguished convert. Dr. jMcMullen, pastor of Holy
Name Church, wrote October 14 from St. Patrick's,
where he had taken refuge after his own church had
been laid in ashes :
"I need not tell you that you were oftou in my thoughts.
I have met most of my people and have been able to do some-
thing to relieve them. I have been very busy in procuring
and distributing supjilies. Busy as ever in my life. This eve-
ning I leave with Father P. W. Riordan for Xew York; we
will collect through New York and New England; Dr. Butler
with another takes Maryland and Pennsylvania; Father Roles
goes to tiio Pacific Coast; others to Cincinnati and others to
St. Louis."!
' McGovEKX, Life of Bishop McMuUcn.
BISHOP FOLEY AND THE FIRE OF 1871 223
The plight to which a prosperous and high-spirited ^''"<^'"'''<'"
city had suddenly been reduced by a great calamit}^
touched the heart of the nation and relief sufficient to
temper the worst features of the crisis was soon flowing
in from every quarter. Catholic response to the call for
help was prompt and generous and in no long time the
Catholics of Chicago, under the leadership of the indom-
itable Bishop Foley, the man of the hour, were heart-
ened to look around them and plan for the restoration
of the Church to something of its pristine splendor. But
here we must end. The story of the new Catholic Chi-
cago, risen on the ashes of the old to a splendor of
growth and prosperity utterly undreamt of fifty years
ago, falls beyond the scope of the present narrative.
Under a succession of prelates as zealously enterprising
and efficient as ever led a Catholic diocese along the
paths of progress, Foley, Feehan, Quigley and Munde-
lein, the march of the new Catholicity in Chicago has
been one of steady and triumphant advance. AVhere so
much has been achieved, the imagination loves to dwell
on the historical landmarks that emphasize the nothing-
ness from W'hich the start was made. Two hundred and
forty-seven years ago Father Jacques Marquette offered
the first Holy Sacrifice on the wind-swept prairie that
has since become Chicago, Two hundred and twenty-five
years ago, Father Francis Pinet, the first resident priest,
was ministering in his little Indian chapel at the forks
of the river. Eightj'-eight years ago when Father St. Cyr
arrived in Chicago to build the first parish church, he
found the Catholics of the place numbering but a paltry
two hundred. Eleven years later wdien Bishop Quarter
took possession of the newly-erected see of Chicago, St.
Mary's parish, with its two attendant priests, was still
224 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO
the only one in the city. Fifty years ago, when the
Great Fire came in tlie guise of a calamity to mark
the passing of the old and the birth of the new Chicago,
there were in the city twenty-four parishes, twenty-two
parish schools, fifty-five priests of the secular and reg-
ular clergj', and a Catholic population of probably a
hundred thousand. Today, seventy-eight years since the
erection of the diocese of Chicago, the Catholic Church
in that city counts two hundred and twenty-seven par-
ishes, five hundred and more priests of the secular and
regular clergy and over a million communicants. Few
pages in the history of the Catholic Church in any coun-
try furnish a more amazing illustration of the growth
of the proverbial mustard-seed to a tree of vast and
over-shadowing proportions.
INDEX
INDEX
A.
Albreeht, Father Philip, 197
Alexiau Brothers' Hospital, 207
AUouez, S. J., Father Claude,
10-11
Amiot, Louis, 27
Anuunciation parish, 199
Apgood, Dexter, 46
Arnold, I. N., 186
Aylward, Father M., 211
B
Badin, Father Stephen T., at
Chicago (1830), 31, 32; al-
leged visits of 1796 and 1822
to, note, 32-35; land prom-
ised by Indians to, 54, 60 ;
Bishop Quarter 's Seminary,
116
Bailly, Esther, 97
Baltes, Bishop, 117
Baltimore, Chicago in diocese
of, 28
Bardstown, Chicago in diocese
of, 28
Barrett, Father Stephen, 201
Beaubien, Alexander, 32, 34, 35,
98
Beaubien, Caroline, 97
Beaubien, Charles H., 62
Beaubien, George, 97
Beaubien, Jean Baptiste, Chi-
cago pioneer, ' ' Dean House,"
home of, 30 ; land-claim, 37-
39 ; signs petition for priest,
45; otfers site for first Cath-
olic Church, 49, 63; per-
forms marriage-ceremony,
98; offers lots for school,
103
Beaubien, Josette Laframboise,
wife of J. B. Beaubien, 68,
97, 98
Beaubien, Julia, 32
Beaubien, Mark, Chicago pi-
oneer, 39 ; signs petition for
priest, 45; St. Cyr guest of,
63; Sauganash Hotel, 87;
named in baptismal register,
97
Beaubien, Medard (Madore),
91
Beaubien, Monique, 32
Beaubien, Robert, 98
Beaubiens of Detroit, note, 38
Benedictines, 194-195, 197
Binneteau, S. J., Father, 15-17,
19
Bissell, Governor, 181
Bourassa, Daniel, 39, 99
Bourassa, Leon, 45
Bourbonnois, Francis, 97
Braner (Brennan?), — , 99
Breen, Father J., 210-211
Brodeur, J. B., 46
Brotherhoods:
Brothers, Alexian, 207
Brothers of the Christian
Schools, 209, 217
227
228
INDEX
Brothers of tlie Holy Cross,
212
Brute, Bishop, baptizes in Chi-
cago, 26, 104; appointed
Bishop of Viuccnnes, 71-77;
writes to Rosati a1)out St.
Cyr, 74, 76, 77, 99, 100, 101 ;
letters in archives, 75 ; writes
about Chicago in Cincinnati
Catholic Telegraph, 81, 83;
visitation of Chicago (1838),
103; death, 104; interest in
history of Mississippi Val-
ley, note, 195
Bulf's Head, 173
Burke, Father T., 183, 191
Butler, Father P. T., 199
Butler, Father Thaddeus J.,
183, 184, 185, 186, 192, 222
Caldwell, Billy, Potawatomi
Chief, 39, 40, '41, 56, 89, 99
Caton, Dean, 87
Catholic Institute, 181, 182
Cemeteries, Catholic ; first ceme-
tery, 107; Calvary, 168
Condamine, Father Matthew, 80
Charlevoix, S. J., Father Fran-
cois, 22
Chassut. Jacques, 5
Cheka, Father \V.. 202
Chevalier, Catherine, 41
Chicago, missionary visitors to,
Marquette, 2-9; Allouez, 10;
Gravier, 11 ; Membre, Cave-
lier de la Salle, Douay, 12 ;
Pinet, 13-20 ; Montigny, Dav-
ion, St. Cosme, 14-19 ; Rich-
ard, 29-31; Badin, 31-36;
Catholic population in 1833,
37 ; Catholics petition for
priest, 45-47; Protestant de-
nominations in early, 52; St.
Cyr's ministry (1833-37), see
St. Cyr, Father ; pioneer
schools, 62 ; described by
Brute, 80, 83, 103; Quarter
praises citizens of, 109 ; be-
ginnings of Catholic educa-
tion in, 112-119; early par-
ishes, 119-124; 145-150, 188-
202 ; first parochial schools,
150-154; orphan-asylum, 154-
157 ; Mercy Hospital, 158-
160; Jesuit parish, 169-178;
Catholic lay-activities, 181,
182 ; Catholic patriotism in
Civil "War, 183-188 ; sisterhoods,
202-206 ; asylums and hos-
pitals, 206-209 ; Catholic
higher education for women,
209-210, for men, 210-218;
Fire of 1871, 220-222
Chevalier, Josette, 99
Chevalier, Louis, 45, 99
Chevalier, Pierre, 89
Christian Brothers, 209, 217
Clark, Margaret, 98
Clowry, Father William, 210-
211
Cote, Father Jacob, 198
Council Bluffs, Chicago Potawa-
tomi at, 88
Cumberland House, 154
Cummiskey, Father James, 129
D
Damen, S. J., Father A., 169-
178, 198, 203-204
Davion, Father, 15, 16, 17
De Andreis, C. M., Father
Felix, 78
De Maria, S. J., Father Fran-
cis, 111
Deseille, Father, 53
INDEX
229
Dc Smet, S. J., Father Pierre,
89, 169
Desplat, Bazille, 46
Dillon, C. S. C, Father James,
212
Dillon, Father Matthew, 9, 211
Diversey, Michael, note, 123,
147, 188
Donaghoe, Father Terence J.,
203, 204
Douay, Father Anastasius,
Recollect, at Chicago (1688),
12
Druyts, S. J., Father John, 173,
175, 176
Du Bourg, Bishop, 78
Duggan, Bishop, appointed to
see of Chicago, 180; Cath-
olic lay-activities, 181-182 ;
Catholics and Civil War, 183-
188; new parishes, 188-202;
Catholic sisterhoods and par-
ish schools, 202-206; asylums
and hospitals, 206-209; high-
er education for women, 209-
210; higher education for
men, 210-218 ; illness and re-
tirement, 218.
Dumas, S. J., Father, in vicin-
ity of CMcago (1728), 22
Dunne, Father Dennis, 183, 184,
185
Du Pontavice, Father Hippoly-
tus, 106
Dupuy, Father E., 77
Durocher, J. B., 46
E
Education, Catholic:
University
University of St. Mary of the
Lake, 112-116, 151, 210-216
Colleffe
St. Ignatius College, 217
Academies
St. Agatha's, 160, 209
Christian Brothers, 207
Holy Name, 209
St. Joseph's, 210
Sacred Heart, 203, 210
St. Paul's, 209
St. Xavier's, 117-119, 209
Farish Schools, 231
Edwards, Father Thomas, 200
Edwards, Father William, 192
F
Fink, O. S. B., Bishop, 191, 195
Finlay, John Huston, cjuoted, 5
Fire of 1871, 220-223
Fischer, Father, 204
Fischer, Father Francis, 107,
127
Fitzmaurice, Father C, 66
Flaget, Bishop, mentions Chi-
cago in address to Holy See,
p. 28; writes to St. Cyr, 59;
character-sketch of Brute,
75 ; consecrates Brute, 77 ;
writes about St. Cyr, 79, 80
Foley, Bishop, appointed Ad-
ministrator of Chicago, 219 ;
installation, 220; Fire of
1871, 220-222
Foote, Peter, 215
Force, C. SS. C, Father, 194
Fortniann, Father Henry, 188
Francheres, Louis, 46
Franciscans, 193
French Catholics, 149-150, 198
G
Galena, 67
Galway, Madame, 202
German Catholics, German
name in petition of 1833, 46 ;
Father B. Schaefer, first Ger-
man-speaking priest (q.v.);
230
INDEX
first German name in St.
Mary's register, 9S; Father
M. Kundig holds services for,
102; efforts of Bishop Quar-
ter on behalf of, 120-123,
first ehurches, St. Peter's and
St. Joseph's, 123-124; popu-
lation in Illinois, note, 12-1 ;
St. Michael's, 146; St. Fran-
cis of Assissi's, 147, 148,
201; new St. Peter's, 148,
192 : in Civil War, note, 188 ;
growth of St. Peter's, St.
Joseph's, St. Michael's, (192
197; St. Boniface's, 197;
orphan asylum, 208
Gillespie, C."s. C, Father Xeil.
194, 212
Grogan, Father John, 189
Grogan, Father J. J., 201
Gravier, S. J., Father Jacques,
at Chicago (1700), 11
Guarie, 24
H
Hailandiere, Bishop de la, 90,
10,0
Halligan, Father T. J.. 200
Hatala, Father Aloysius, 195
Heald, Captain, 44
Hondorf, John, 46
Henni, Bishop, 164
Hibernian Benevolent Emigra-
tion Society, 130
Hoey, Father Louis, 149, 210-
211
Hogan, John S. C, 46
Holy Cross, Brothers of the, 212
Holy Cross Fathers, 193-194,
211, 212
Holy Family parish, 169-178
Holy Name parish, see Par-
ishes, Chicago
Holzer, C. SS. R., Father, 209
Hospitals :
Alexian Brothers', 207
Mercy, 158-160
St. Joseph's, 208
House of Providence, 209
Hughes. Bishop, 109, 136
Hubbard, Gurdon S., 28, 32,
33
Hurlcv, Fatlior, 211
Immaculate Conception parisii,
191, 192
Ingoldsby, Father John, 111
Ireland, Archbishop, quoted,
note, 69, 117
Irish Brigade, 185, 188
Irish names, petition of 1833,
45; St. Mary's baptismal
register, 97
Jaegle, O. S. B., Father :Mein-
rad, 194
Jesuits, first priests in Chicago,
1-23 ; Holy Family parish,
169-178; St. Stanislaus (Sa-
cred Heart) parish, 198; St.
Ignatius College, 217
Joliet. discovers Mississippi, 2
Joutel, at Chicago (1688), 12
Juneau, Josette Vieau, wife of
Solomon Juneau, 68, 97
Juneau, Marguerite, 97
Juneau, ^latilda, 98
Jung, Father John 120, 123,
193
Juskiewicz, Father Joseph, 200
Kaiser, Father Eusebius, 195
Keeney, Father Edward, 191
INDEX
231
Kelly, Father Thomas F., 185,
ISO, 190
Kenrick, Archbishop, 163, 104
Kilroy, C. S. C, Father C. B.,
194, 212
KinscUa, Father Jeremiah, 11,
112, 130, 132, 210, 211
Kinzie, Harriet Gweiithlean,
104
Kinzie, John 24
Kinzie "Mansion," 25
Kinzie, Robert, 26, 9S, 104
Kopp, Father Anthony, 147,
193
Kroemer, Father A., 147
Kuudig, Father Martin, 102,
120
L
La Compte, Madame, 23
Laframboise, Alexis, 45
Laframboise, Claude, 39, 45,
88
Laframboise, Joseph, 39, 45, 56,
97
Laframboise (Beaubien), Jos-
ette, see Beaubien, Josette L.
Lalumiere, Father Simon, 78
Lang, Father A., 197
La Salle, at Chicago (1681), 12
La Salle, Father Cavelier Dc
La, at Chicago (1688), 12
Lebel, Father J. A., 150
Le Mai, Francis, 24, 26
Le Clerc (Claire), Pierre (Pier-
ish), note, 39, 45
Levadoux, Father Michael, 29
Leyden, Father Thomas, 199
Liermann, Father, 124
Lincoln, Abraham, alleged
Catholicity of, 69, 70
Loisel, Father Regis, 77
Lutz, Father Joseph, 47, 85, 86
Lyons, Father Michael, 200
M
Mackinac, Chicago mentioned
in baptismal register of, 27
Magdalen Asylum, 207-208
Mager, C. S. C, Father John
B., 194
Mann, John, 45
Marquette, S. J., Father
James, discovers Missis-
sippi, 2 ; winters at Chicago,
3-9; death of, 10
Marquette cross, 5
Marschall, Father J.. 197
Mc.ronnell, Charles, 129, 130
McElhearne, Father Michaci,
131, 132, 133
McGirr, Dr., 132. 134
McGorisk, Father Bernard, 112,
127
McGovern, D. D., Father James,
215
McLaughlin. Father P. J., 120
McMahan, Father P., 127
McMullan, Father J. B., 117,
178, 183, 184, 185, 187, 201,
206, 213, 216
Melcher, Very Rev. J., 163
Membre, Father Zenobe, Recol-
lect, at Chicago (1681), 12
Menard, Pierre, 58
Mercy Hospital, 158-160
Merritt, Mary A., 135
Miami Indians, at Chicago, 16,
23
Michigan and Illinois Canal,
92. 93
Milwaukee, baptisms by Father
B. Schaefer, 98
Miranda, J. B., 45
Monselle, Charles, 46
Montabrique, Father A., de,
198
Month, The, 215
232
INDEX
Montigiiy, Father, letter of, 19 ;
at Chicago (1699), 22
Mueller, C. SS. R., Fatlier J.,
196
Mulligan, Col. J. A., 185-188
Murphy, Mrs. John, 33, 34
N
Nativity parish, 200
Nadcau, Monique, 97
Notre Dame parish, 198
O
Oakley, S. J., Father Maurice,
177
O'Brien, Sister Mary Agatha,
117, 129, 157
Ogden, William B., 134
O'Meara, Father Timothy, bap-
tizes Robert Kinzie, 26; first
baptism in Chicago, 102;
Brute and, 103 ; suspended,
106
Onahan. W. J., 181, 182
O'Neill, S. J., Father Andrew,
205
O'Neill, S.J., Brother Thomas,
205
O 'Regan, Bisliop, early career,
167 ; appointed Bishop of
Chicago, 168 ; organizes new
parishes, 190; invites Jesuits
to Chicago, 169-175; Holy
Family (Jesuit) parish and
church, 175-178 ; resigns see,
179; death, 179
Orphan Asylum, 154-157
Orphan Asylum, German, 208
Ostlangenberg, Father Caspar
H., 120
Ouilmette, Antoiiie, Cliieago pi-
oneer, 25, 28, 39, 98
Ouilmette, Elizabeth, 98
Ouilmette (Wilmot), Louis, 89,
98
Ouilmette (Wilmette) Marie, 97
Owen, Thomas J. V., Indian
agent at Chicago, 45, 49;
Chicago treaty of 1833, 57;
Indian land-grant to church,
59
Parishes, Chicago:
Annunciation, 199
Holv Family, 169-178
Holy Name, 124, 125, 146,
170
Immaculate Conception, 191,
192
Nativity, 200
Notre Dame, 198
Sacred Heart, 198
St. Anne's, 199
St. Boniface's, 197
St. Bridget's, 189
St. Columbkille's, 191
St. Francis of Assissi's, 147,
148, 201
St. Henry's, 188
St. James, 190
St. Jarlath's, 201
St. John's, 191
St. John Nepomucene, 201
St. Joseph's, 123, 146, 188,
193-194
St. Louis, 150
St. Mary's, 49-51, 54, 61, 65,
82. 106, 107, 109, 125, 127,
128. 149
St. Michael's, 147, 195-190
St. Paul's. 201
St. Patrick's, 119, 149, ISS
St. Patrick's (South Chica-
go), 190
INDEX
233
St. Peter's, 123, 148
St. Stauislaus (Polish), 200
St. Stauislaus (Sacred Heart),
198
St. Stepheu's, 201
St. Thomas, 190
St. Thomas the Apostle 's,
199
St. Wenceslaus, 197
Parish Schools:
Holy Family, 203, 205
Holy Name, 152, 153, 202,
203, 205
Immaculate Conceptiou, 205
St. Bouif ace's, 205
St.Columbkille's, 205
St. Francis of Assissi's, 153,
205
St. James, 203
St. Joseph's, 153, 203
St. Louis, 153
St. Mary's, 151, 152, 202, 203
St. Michael's, 153, 203
St. Patrick's, 153, 188, 202,
203
St. Peter's, 153
St. Stauislaus (Sac. Heart),
205
Peltier, Jacquet, 97
Peltier, Jean Baptiste, 26
Perry, N. P., 26
Pettel (Pettle), Louis, 25
Pettelle, Domitille, 27
Pinet, S. J., Father Francois,
at Chicago (1696-1700, 12-
20; with the Tamaroa, 20;
death, 21
Plathe, Father G. W., 149, 193
Platte Purchase, 87
Pointe de Saible, Jean Baptiste,
24
Pointe de Saible, Susanne, 26
Pokegan, Potawatomi chief, 36
Poor Handmaids of Christ, 209
Portage des Sioux, Mo., Bap-
tismal register of, 27
Porter, Rev. Jeremiah, Pres-
byterian clergyman, 52, 54,
83
Potawatomi Indians, occupy
site of Chicago, 23; Catholic
chiefs, 40; treaty of 1833,
56 ; grant land for church
purposes, 60 ; migrate to
West, 86-89
Pothier, Jean, 45
Poulx, J. B., 45
Quarter, Bishop, early career,
108 ; arrives in Chicago, 109 ;
ordains first priests. 111 ;
University of St. Mary of the
Lake, 112; University incor-
porated, 113 ; Catholic Bishop
of Chicago constituted "cor-
poration sole", 113; new
University building opened,
114; invites Sisters of Mercy
to Chicago, 117; makes Vir-
gin Mother patroness of di-
ocese, 117; organizes new
parishes, St. Patrick's, St.
Patrick's, St. Joseph's, St.
Peter's, Holy Name, 119-124;
extracts from Diary, 126-
130; death, 130-132
Quarter, Father Walter, 109,
112, 119, 137, 138
Quebec, Chicago in diocese of,
28
R
Railroads, note, 144
Redemptorists, 147, 196
Rabbie, J. B., 45
234
INDEX
Reformatory and Imlustrial
School, 207
Reform and Industrial School
(Bridgeport), 209
Religious of the Sacred Heart,
see Sisterlioods
Resurrectionists, 200
Reze (Reze, Rese), Bishop,
visits Chicago (1833), 59
Richard, Father Gabriel, at
Chicago (1821), 29-31
Rieseh, C. SS. R., Father
George, 196
Riordan, Msgr. Daniel J., note,
IIG
Riordan, Father P. W. Rear-
don,' 117, 183, 222
Robinson, Alexander, Potawa-
tomi chief, 40, -41 ; daugh-
ters of, note, 42 ; signs peti-
tion for priest, 45; supports
Chicago treaty of 1833, 57
Roles, Father Joseph P., 183,
215 222
Tlosarist's Companion, 129
Rosati, Bishop, jurisdiction in
Chicago, 42, 43; sends St.
Cyr to Chicago, 47; letters
from Father St. Cyr to, 49,
53, 57, 61, CG ,67, 82, 84, 86,
90, 91, 93, 94
Rothensteiner, Father John,
quoted, 7iote, 42
Roux, Father Benedict, 77
S
St. Cosme, Father, at Chica^^o,
15; letter of, 15-18
St. Cyr, Father J. M. I., ap-
pointed to Chicago mission,
47 ; early career, 48 ; arrives
in Chicago, 48 ; letters to
Bishop Rosati, 49, 53, 57, 61,
66, 67, 82, 84, 86, 90, 91, 93,
94; first ^lass in new cliurch.
61; goes to St. Louis (1834),
62 ; first Mass in Chicago,
63 ; Chicago Catholics peti-
tion to retain, 95; baptismal
records, 97, death, 99
St. Joseph's hospital, 208
St. Ours, Antoine, 46
Sacred Heart parish, 198
Sacger, Fatlier Anthony, 195
Saver, Dill, 45
Seammon, J. Young, 134
Schaeffer, Father, 193
Schaeflfer, Father Bernard, 90,
92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 101, 102
Schulak, S. J., Father F. X.,
197
Schneer, O. S. B., Father Leau-
der, 194
Schuyler, C. S. C, Father, 194
SchMartz, Abram, 98
Shcahan, James W., 177
Shortis, C. S. C, Father Rich-
ard, 212
Sisterhoods:
Benedictine Sisters, 203, 210
Franciscan Sisters, 198, 205
Poor Handmaids of Christ,
209
Religious of the Sacred
Heart, 174, 202, 203, 206,
210
Sisters of Charity, B. V. M.,
203-205
Sisters of Charity of St. Vin-
cent, 203, 205", 208, 209
Sisters of the Good Shepherd,
206-207
Sisters of St. Jose].ii 216
Sisters of Lorotto, 20.';
Sisters of Mercy, 117-119,
INDEX
235
125, 129, 137, 153, 154,
156, 157, 158-160, 174, 202.
203, 206, 209
Sisters of Notre Dame, 203
Sisters of St. Dominic (Sin-
siiiawa) 205, 206
Sisters of Mercy, Holy Cross,
Loretto, Notre Dame, St.
Benedict, St. Dominic, St.
Francis, St. Joseph, see Sis-
terlioods
''Skokie", 14
Smarius, S. J., Fatlier Cor-
nelius, 181
Smith, J. Lisle, 134
Smyth, Bishop, 181
Sorin, C. S. C, Rev. Edward
Sorin, 211
Springfield, 111., proposed by
St. Cyr as headquarters for
missionary, 67
St. Louis, party of Father Mon-
tigny at, 18 ; Father Pinet at
River Des Peres (St. Louis),
21; cathedral registers, 27;
Chicago in ecclesiastical jur-
isdiction of, 42, 43
St. Mary's (Kansas), Chicago
Potawatomi at, 88
St. Mary's, St. Patrick's, etc.,
parishes, etc., see, Parishes,
Chicago
St. Palais, Father Maurice de,
90, 106, 107, 110, 111, 127,
128, 177
Taheaux, J. B., 46
Taylor, Augustine D., 42, 61,
65, 66, 91, 123, 155
Taylor, Anson, 42, 46, 48, 59
Taylor, Charles, 45
Thelcn, Brother Bojiaventura,
207
Tippecanoe Hall, lo't
Tonty, at Chicago (16S1), 12
Tschieder, S. J., Father Peter,
1G4
Truyens, S. J., Father Charles,
175
Tuseh, C. S. C, Father Andrew,
194
V
Van der Laar, Father Martin,
191
Van de Velde, Bishop, early
early career, 138, 139; ap-
pointed Bishop of Chicago,
140, 141; installation, 142;
poverty of diocese, 143 ; ex-
tracts from Diary, 144 ; paro-
chial schools, 150-154; founds
Orphan Asylum, 154-157 ;
Mercy Hospital, 157-160 ;
transferred to Natchez, 161-
164; death, note, 165
Van Quickenborne, Fatlier C.
F., 69, baptizes Potawatomi
from Chicago, 142
Vaughn, Dill, 45
Vaughn, James, 45
Venn, Father C, 197
Vieau, Josette, see Juneau,
Josette Vieau
Vincennes, diocese of, erf:cted,
71 ; scarcity of priests, 78, 81
W
Waldron, Father John, 183, 191
Walsh, Patrick, 45, 98
Ward, Father Patrick, 191
Watkins, Thomas, 83
236
INDEX
Weikarap, Father John B., 147,
148
Welsh, Joliii, 97
Whistler, Gwenthaliu (Gwenth-
lean), 26, 98
■\\liistler, Capt. John, estab-
lishes Fort Dearborn, 26;
dies in St. Louis, 43
Whistler, Johne, 44, 97
Whistler, Major William, 26,
44, 46
Wilmot (Ouilmette), Louis, 99
Wimette (Ouilmette), Marie,
97
Wischmeyer, Henry, 207
Zimmer, O. S. B., Abbot Boni-
face, 194
Zimmer, C. SS. R., Fatlier P.,
196
Zoegel, Father Joseph, 195
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